SINGAPORE — A rogue Great Eastern insurance agent on Tuesday (April 30) admitted to preying on more than 30 of his clients who were elders or who could not read or write English.

He cheated them of close to S$200,000 in bogus insurance premiums over a period of six years.

Poh Kim Chuan, 54, was jailed two years and 10 months after pleading guilty to 14 cheating and criminal breach of trust charges. Forty-two other similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

Court documents stated that Poh — who had been an agent with insurance company Great Eastern since 1992 — started misappropriating his clients’ monies in 2007.

He was exposed in 2012 after a client, Madam Tan Poh Yur, paid him S$50,000 to buy a new insurance policy and asked for the documents two months later. Poh then confessed to Mdm Tan, now 53, that he had not applied for a policy on her behalf and had pocketed the money for his own use. He begged her to give him some time to repay her.

Three months later, Poh gave her a S$50,000 cheque and Mdm Tan went to the police when the cheque bounced and the insurance agent could not be reached.

Investigations later revealed that Poh had misappropriated money from 32 clients, which the prosecution said was “far more than” the number of victims in any other cases involving insurance agents.

Among those he duped were at least four illiterate clients who had regularly asked him to help read the letters they received from Great Eastern because they did not understand English.

One of them was a 78-year-old woman who would hand cash to Poh every three months, thinking that he was helping to pay her insurance premiums, when he was really not doing so. When reading the letters to her, Poh would assure the woman that there was no issue with her insurance policy.

Two other clients he conned were women in their 60s and he had been acting as their agent for at least 18 years. He misappropriated S$18,000 and S$10,000 from each of them.

To date, Poh has only returned S$850 out of the S$3,500 that he took from the 78-year-old. He has not made any restitution for the remaining S$190,822.59 that he took from his victims.

In asking for a jail sentence of at least 34 months for Poh, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Vadivalagan Shanmuga said that Singapore is facing an ageing population and a "strong signal” needs to be sent to would-be perpetrators.

He added that Poh had preyed on those who relied on him to settle their insurance matters and that his actions might have caused some to lose the “courage” to get themselves insured.

“The accused shared a close and long-standing relationship with many of the victims and even went beyond his job scope to help some of them renew their road tax and car insurance… However, the accused blatantly abused his position of trust to commit the offences,” the DPP said.

District Judge Christopher Tan Pheng Wee noted that Great Eastern was the biggest victim in this case as the insurance company had to compensate all affected customers.

Following Poh’s sentencing, Great Eastern told TODAY that it takes a “very serious view of any (such) misconduct” and “will not hesitate to take stern action against errant representatives”.

The insurer noted that when it was alerted to Poh’s wrongdoings in early September 2012, it immediately suspended him and launched an investigation into the matter. Great Eastern terminated its agreement with Poh in August 2013 after investigations concluded.

The company has also been “constantly strengthening” its processes “to ensure that our customers’ interests are protected at all times”, it added.