SINGAPORE — A 52-year-old man was sentenced to seven weeks’ jail on Wednesday (Oct 21) for submitting six insurance claims over damaged luggage, using inaccurate photographs and lying to get more than S$3,000 in payouts.

Goh Tian Lee admitted that after receiving compensation for his first claim, he realised it was not difficult to cheat AXA Insurance.

Goh, a Singaporean, pleaded guilty to three counts of cheating. District Judge Teoh Ai Lin took another two similar charges into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that Goh bought an annual SmartTraveller travel insurance plan from AXA in 2017, renewing it when it was about to lapse every year.

He was also insured by AXA through his company as he needed to travel for work.

Between January 2018 and September 2019, he flew to Vietnam and Myanmar for business trips.

On several occasions, after returning to Singapore, he reported that his Rimowa luggage bag had been damaged due to mishandling.

His reasons ranged from the luggage wheels being broken and the body being badly dented, to the bag being dented at the corner.

He submitted six claims to AXA, receiving S$3,375 in payouts.

In one such claim that he submitted through a third party, he provided a photograph of another bag he owned. Its wheels were damaged and he had already previously claimed for that damage.

When AXA asked if the luggage could be repaired, he said he had discarded it.

In another claim, he peeled off a sticker from another bag to make it look more like the one he was claiming for.

He later admitted to recycling photographs in some claims and not being truthful.

His offences came to light around October 2019, when AXA realised he had made more than four claims in nine months. The company then noticed photos of the damaged luggage he had submitted were similar.

AXA contacted Goh through email in December 2019 to check if the damage on his bag was repairable. They also asked him for photos of its front, back, top and bottom for verification purposes.

Goh replied that he had already disposed of the luggage and would not consider dealing with AXA in the future if they could not expedite his claim.

However, the luggage was later recovered from his home.

For each cheating charge, he could have been jailed for up to three years or fined, or both.