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SINGAPORE: One of the masterminds of a series of auto insurance claim scams that tricked insurers into paying around S $ 125,500 for manufactured auto accidents was jailed for two years and seven months on Monday (September 14) .
Tay Boon Hian, 46, pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy to cheat, and eight other counts were considered.
His attorney argued that a “discount” should be given as the crimes were committed in 2008, and he was arrested only last year after being initially released without charge.
The court heard that Tay was then the owner of one car rental company and operator of another. He supplied BM Car Leasing cars for simulated car accidents with which he and his co-masterminds made fraudulent insurance claims.
The other men included his then-employee Kenneth Wong Chong Wee, who helped plan and help provide vehicles for staging the “accidents.” Wong also recruited a “ghost driver”, while another man, Ng Chong Khai, helped organize accidents and refer repair work to a workshop for commission.
The group also agreed to a specialist, Lim Yang Peow, who intentionally rear-ended one vehicle against another to cause damage to the cars.
The four men, including Tay, conspired in 2008 to mislead insurance companies by using Tay company vehicles to arrange accidents.
They would line the vehicles up in remote locations before the specialist crashed into each other, and they would send the vehicles to a workshop for repair.
Later, they recruited people to submit their data and report their data as drivers and passengers in fabricated traffic accidents in order to trick insurance companies into giving them payments.
Tay provided the vehicles used in the accidents and recruited Wong into the conspiracy. Tay made his way through the area for setups to ensure no other vehicles were approaching the crash site and also posed as a passenger in one of three hoax accidents he was involved in.
Fraudulent claims from the three accidents amounted to S $ 157,086, and the insurers made payments of S $ 125,481 as they believed they were genuine.
Deputy District Attorney David Koh asked for two years and nine months in jail, saying that crime needs to be deterred as auto insurance scams are difficult to detect.
“There is a compelling public interest to deter auto insurance fraud to control rising insurance premiums and protect the general public from having to suffer financially,” he said.
THERE MUST BE A DISCOUNT FOR THE DELAY: DEFENSE
Defense attorney Kalidass Murugaiyan said there should be “a small discount” for his client, as the case is heard only 12 years after the crimes.
He said Tay went to the police station to give his statements in 2011 and that “there was no bail problem” as he could travel freely.
He went to China and Indonesia on business before returning to Singapore in 2014 to renew his passport, and was only detained in 2019 when he returned to Singapore.
“The police have not gone to the house or delivered letters to relatives asking about his whereabouts,” Kalidass said.
“I would also add … when the wheels of justice move a little slower, it has an effect on the life of the person.”
The prosecutor explained that the case was “a complex matter” that involved several people and was connected to a larger union.
“As such, a sequential approach was taken to prosecute cases in which the defendant confessed, before using them as prosecution witnesses against others,” he said.
He said that by the time he got to Tay, he had left the country and the investigating officer discovered him only when he sent a letter to his registered address and later discovered through examinations that he had left the jurisdiction.
Mr. Koh maintained that “there were no excessive delays.” He said the time that passed was “necessary” for the investigations of the “very complex” case to be completed.
The judge said it was “unfortunate” that Tay was charged more than 10 years after the crimes were committed.
“During this time, he stayed on the correct side of the law and did not commit any crime in between,” he said. However, he added that he could not ignore the large amount involved and the fact that Tay did not make any restitution.
The other intellectual authors of the case were sentenced before. Wong pleaded guilty in 2016 and was sentenced to two years and seven months in jail, while Ng pleaded guilty in 2017 and was imprisoned for two and a half years. Lim was jailed for three years after pleading guilty in 2017.
For each count of conspiracy to cheat, Tay could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined.
