Manuliife Agent Jailed For Fraud Claims

A former Manulife insurance agent hoped to earn more commission with every successful policy he sold. So he cooked up a plan – together with a fellow agent and a chiropractor – to cheat the insurer by submitting fraudulent claims to the company.

For his actions, Mike Chew Jun Yong was on Friday (Oct 18) sentenced to six months’ jail. He pleaded guilty to three charges of conspiracy to cheat, with another four similar charges taken into consideration for sentencing.

Chew, 37, sold personal accident insurance policies to patients, and then submitted S$8,855 worth of claims to Manulife for their treatment costs. However, the policies did not cover pre-existing conditions.

Manulife only paid out S$1,750 of the fraudulent claims in the end. He was acquitted of two other charges relating to about S$1,200 worth of fraudulent claims. No payouts were given for them.

Charles Loo Boon Ann, the director of Chiropractic Focus Group at the time, is currently serving an eight-month jail sentence for his role in the scheme. The other insurance agent, Priscilla Tien Ling, is set to plead guilty to her offences next week.

The court heard that when Loo got to know the pair in early 2017, they discussed how to collaborate in their respective chiropractic and insurance businesses. They agreed to their plan over several meet-ups.

Loo encouraged his patients to sign up for treatment packages and referred them to the agents who would sell them policies. The patients would return to Loo’s practice and claim the treatment costs. 

Loo claimed in his medical reports that his patients had sought treatment for injuries sustained after the inception date of their policies.

Chew and Tien also wrote false details in the accident claim forms to facilitate the fraudulent claims. They took turns to handle the claims using an Excel spreadsheet, hoping that they would be able to increase their customer pool and sell more insurance products to the patients.

They also hoped that they would earn more commission for every policy they successfully sold. During Loo’s case, the court heard that the trio cheated 13 patients from April 2017 to April last year.

In one instance, a husband-and-wife pair visited the Chiropractic Focus Group’s outlet at Tampines Central on April 6, 2017. Loo told the man that he could treat his chronic back pain, and told the woman that one of her legs was longer than the other and that her posture was poor. 

When Loo recommended them treatment packages, they hesitated as they felt the packages were too expensive. However, they signed up for one costing S$4,800 and physiotherapy sessions costing S$510 after Loo told them they could buy an insurance policy to cover the costs.

The couple bought a Manulife policy through Chew and Tien, then returned to Loo for treatment. On June 16, 2017, Chew submitted a personal accident claim form for the couple. He wrote that the man had slipped and fallen, causing swelling and pain in his hip and back, while the woman had slipped and fallen in his office.

Manulife eventually paid the couple S$500 each.

For each cheating charge, Chew could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined.