SINGAPORE — Mired in financial difficulties, automotive consultant Abraham Rock cooked up a plan to fake his mother’s death overseas so that he could claim insurance and Central Provident Fund (CPF) payouts.

His mother, Talat Farman, agreed to take part in the plan and they travelled to her birth country of Pakistan to carry it out.

Rock then returned to Singapore to falsely report her death and submitted fraudulent claims, totalling about S$3.77 million, to the CPF and four insurers. Only S$129,331 was paid out before AXA Insurance made a police report.

For their actions, 36-year-old Rock was sentenced to three years and 10 months’ jail on Thursday (Sept 26), while his mother Talat, 54, was jailed for a year and a month.

Mother and son, both Singaporeans, pleaded guilty to two and three counts respectively of conspiring to cheat. Rock also admitted to two other charges of giving false information to an immigrations officer and fabricating evidence to be used in a judicial proceeding.

ROPED IN UNCLE AND COUSINS

The court heard that Rock began planning to commit insurance fraud in 2017 by researching online about which insurance policies gave the highest payouts upon death and what documents he needed to make a claim.

He discussed the plan with his uncle in Pakistan to fake Talat’s death in a road traffic accident. 

This was because he could get double the death benefit coverage if the death involved public transport.

His uncle agreed to help by checking with his contacts on whether they could provide the requisite fake documents to certify Talat’s death.

Between July 31 in 2017 and April 20 last year, Rock bought two Great Eastern insurance policies and two annual travel insurance policies from MSIG and AXA.

He also kept a spreadsheet detailing Talat’s insurance policies and the potential payouts they could get.

Early last year, Rock’s uncle told him he could get the fake documents. Rock's cousins helped to convey messages between the two men. 

The uncle and cousins remain at large.

In June last year, Rock made round-trip travel arrangements for himself and his mother to Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. There, they stayed at a relative’s place while Rock received the fake documents from his uncle.

He also translated them into English so he could use them for insurance claims in Singapore.

GAVE ADDRESS OF GRANDMOTHER’S TOMB

About two weeks later, Rock returned alone to Singapore where he presented Talat’s National Registration Identity Card (NRIC) and passport to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority to report her purported death.

He submitted claims to the CPF Board to withdraw money from his mother’s CPF account and submitted death benefit insurance claims to AXA, MSIG, NTUC Income and Great Eastern.

He gave the insurers forged documents, including Pakistani police reports and a death certificate, that he received from his uncle. 

He claimed that Talat died in a fatal accident near the Kohat Bridge in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Rock also hired a lawyer to help in probate matters linked to Talat’s supposed death and affirmed a court affidavit stating that she had died in Pakistan.

After AXA and MSIG received Rock’s claims, they hired surveyors to authenticate them after discovering some irregularities. 

When the surveyors asked Rock for Talat’s burial address, he gave them the address of his grandmother’s tomb instead.

AXA reported the matter to the police after finding more discrepancies. 

Investigations then revealed that Talat was alive and living in Pakistan. She was repatriated to Singapore in November last year.

Of the S$129,331 that was paid out, S$80,331 was from Talat’s CPF account while the rest was paid out by NTUC Income.

‘CRIME OF MULTIPLE VICTIMS’

On Thursday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Kenneth Chin argued that Rock had “meticulously devised an elaborate plan” and “stood to gain a princely sum” from his scheme.

“It’s a crime of multiple victims, who are not just insurers but also members of the public like Your Honour and myself, who have to bear the increased premium costs of insurance policies,” he told District Judge Christopher Tan.

In mitigation, the pair’s lawyer, Mr Trent Ng, said that Rock lost $300,000 to a friend's contact and spent almost S$100,000 in legal fees trying to recover the sum but failed.

“He was unfortunately then labouring under a state of financial distress and was particularly vulnerable and in a susceptible state of mind,” Mr Ng added, pleading for a lighter sentence of two years and two months.

As for Talat, the lawyer argued that she played “an extremely passive role” as she is “simple-minded”, has no formal education and is able to speak only a limited dialect of Urdu.

“She knew her son was in financial hardship, so she agreed to the plan without fully knowing what it was about, just that she had to play dead. She could return to Pakistan for retirement, which was what she wanted,” Mr Ng added.

District Judge Tan replied that Talat played a critical role in the scheme but added that he “took note of the circumstances which she came to be roped in, with her son being the mastermind”.