[ad_1]
SINGAPORE: For more than two years, an insurance agent took his client’s monthly premiums totaling S $ 117,500, while the company canceled the victim’s policy.
AIA Singapore stopped receiving the victim’s premiums in August 2016 and canceled his life insurance policy a few months later, while the victim continued to pay “premiums” for a non-existent plan for two years.
The rebel agent, Edwin Tan Hock Eng, 37, was jailed for 15 months on Thursday (December 3).
Tan pleaded guilty to one count of criminal breach of trust for improper and dishonest appropriation of the victim’s cash, and two other similar charges were considered.
The court heard that the victim met Tan in 2014 and purchased a life insurance policy for him from AIA Singapore through Tan.
As part of the life insurance policy, the victim had to pay a monthly premium of S $ 4,352.18 for 10 years until 2024.
The policy provides protection in the event of death, up to the age of 100, and exempts the victim from the premium for permanent disability.
If the monthly payments had been made over 10 years, the insured amount would be approximately S $ 589,000 and the victim would have been guaranteed a payment of approximately S $ 13,000 per year from the tenth year onward. The guaranteed maturity value was approximately S $ 1.5 million when the victim turned 100.
From August 2014 to October 2018, the victim turned over her monthly premiums to Tan, who was her insurance agent and was tasked with forwarding them to AIA Singapore.
However, after nearly two years of handing over the victim’s premiums to AIA, Tan began pocketing the cash.
After a grace period, the insurance company canceled the victim’s policy on October 30, 2016. Without knowing this, the victim had continued to pay Tan her monthly premiums for approximately two years after her policy was canceled.
The victim learned from AIA in January 2019 that they had not been receiving their monthly premiums, as of August 2016.
The victim filed a police report shortly after and confronted Tan, who agreed to pay the victim. In total, Tan made a restitution of S $ 211,952, which is the total amount of premiums paid by the victim from August 2014 to October 2018, including premiums that had been legitimately given to AIA.
For criminal breach of trust as an insurance agent, Tan could have been jailed for life or jailed for up to 20 years and fined.
CNA has contacted AIA for more information.
