Ex-insurance agent forged policies to cheat hawker stall helper of $100,000
Wan Ting Koh
·Senior Reporter
Mon, 8 November 2021, 1:02 pm·3-min read
The Singapore State Courts. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore)
SINGAPORE — An insurance agent who owed loansharks money decided to forge insurance policies to cheat her client, an elderly hawker stall helper, into paying more money.
Jennifer Toh Suat Leng also cheated a hawker, who was illiterate and had asked for help to pay her bills, and a Grab driver into buying a fake policy.
Toh, 41, pleaded guilty to one count of cheating and three counts of forgery on Monday (8 November). Another six charges of a similar nature were considered for her sentencing.
Lied to multiple victims
Toh was an insurance agent with HSBC Singapore from 13 May to 11 December 2013, and later worked for AIA Singapore from 17 January 2014 to 9 June 2016.While she was with HSBC, Toh booked a Grab ride on 14 October 2013. Toh told the 53-year-old driver where she worked and that she had an insurance plan under HSBC that promised better interest rates. The victim had just sold his house and wanted to invest the money he had obtained from the sale.
Toh then forged a HSBC insurance policy with the name “Asset Manager II” and presented the policy to the driver. The driver, who believed the policy was genuine, signed the document and handed over $32,000 in cash to Toh.
She has yet to make restitution to the driver.
Toh later cheated a hawker, a 45-year-old woman from whom she was renting a room. As the hawker was illiterate, she sought help from Toh to read letters and to pay bills for her stall. The hawker handed over her NRIC and cash to Toh to pay for bills and conservancy charges.
Around 25 September 2014, Toh went to a Starhub outlet to sign up for two mobile service lines which came with two Apple iPhone 6s worth $1,978. Toh presented the hawker’s NRIC to the staff, who then prepared a contract under the hawker’s name.
Toh later made restitution of $5,000 to the hawker.
Cheated an elderly hawker stall helper
While an insurance agent with AIA, Toh also cheated a 67-year-old hawker stall helper. She got to know the helper as the latter was a client with AIA.Around late 2015, Toh met with the helper to sell her an AIA policy. At the time however, she was in debt with numerous loansharks and schemed to cheat money from the helper by forging AIA insurance policies. She did so at an Internet cafe terminal, copying the letterhead and signatures from an existing contract.
She presented the forged policy to the helper on 15 December 2015, claiming that it was an investment policy with guaranteed returns of $52,340 by December 2016, if the helper put in $50,000.
The helper agreed and handed $50,000 in cash to Toh.
Using the same modus operandi, Toh forged another similar policy on 29 December 2015, and the helper delivered an additional $50,000.
The helper later told her family about the monies she had transferred to Toh. On 26 May 2016, the victim and her family met Toh to ask why there were no returns on her policies as promised. Toh then admitted that she had used all the money for her own expenses and to repay her debts.
She told the victim and her family that she would repay the money in three months, so that the family would not go to the police. However Toh did not deliver, and the victim lodged a police report on 27 May 2016.
Toh has since repaid $21,200 to the helper. She will return to court on 9 December for her sentencing.
(soon par with lanjiao rot as stake)
