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 a few months later ended its life insurance policy, while the victim continued to pay “premiums” for a non-existent plan for two years.
The rogue cop, 37-year-old Edwin Tan Hock Eng, was sentenced 15 months on Thursday (December 3).
Tan pleaded guilty to a criminal breach of trust charge by unfairly appropriating the victim’s money, with two more similar charges being considered.
The court heard that the victim met Tan in 2014 and had taken out life insurance for herself with AIA Singapore through Tan.
As part of the life insurance policy, the victim was required to pay a premium of S $ 4,352.18 on a monthly basis for 10 years until 2024.
The policy provided death protection up to the age of 100 and waived the premium for the victim’s permanent disability.
Had the monthly payments been made for 10 years, the sum insured would be approximately S $ 589,000, and the victim would have been guaranteed a payout of approximately S $ 13,000 per year from the 10th year. The guaranteed term value was approximately S $ 1.5 million when the victim turned 100 years old.
From August 2014 to October 2018, the victim donated his monthly premiums to Tan, who was his insurance agent in charge of forwarding them to AIA Singapore.
However, after nearly two years of handing over the victim’s bounties to AIA, Tan started putting the money in his pocket.
After a grace period, the insurance company canceled the victim’s policy on October 30, 2016. Unaware of this, the victim continued to pay Tan his monthly premiums for about two years after his policy was canceled.
The victim found out from AIA in January 2019 that as of August 2016, they had not received his monthly premiums.
The victim filed a police report shortly after and confronted Tan, who agreed to repay the victim. In total, Tan returned S $ 211,952, the total amount of premiums the victim paid from August 2014 to October 2018, including the premiums lawfully given to AIA.
In a statement on Saturday, AIA said Tan had not been with the company since June 2019, adding that it had a “zero-tolerance policy for inappropriate behavior.”
For a criminal breach of trust as an insurance agent, Tan could have been sentenced to life, imprisonment of up to 20 years and a fine.
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