9 years’ jail for mastermind of ‘sophisticated’ motor insurance fraud scam

SINGAPORE — He was the “mastermind of a well-organised and sophisticated syndicate” that used phantom drivers and passengers to stage multiple traffic accidents from 2009 to 2013, and made fake insurance claims amounting to over S$300,000.

For his role in the crimes, former car workshop boss Sollihin Anhar, 45, was sentenced to nine years’ jail on Monday (June 18). The father-of-five faced a total of 203 charges, mainly for cheating and obstruction of justice.

Sollihin had contested 18 of the charges, and was found guilty in March 2017 following a 10-day trial. He then admitted to 37 more similar charges on March 19 this year, with another 148 taken into consideration for sentencing.

In all, Sollihin submitted 141 fraudulent property damage and personal injury claims totaling about S$1.57 million. Almost S$300,000 was paid out by 13 insurance companies, including Aviva, AXA, Tokio Marine and NTUC Income.

Branding Sollihin the “mastermind” of the syndicate, the prosecution said that he played multiple roles which were “pivotal” to the fraud.

He operated the motor workshop E-Motor, which was registered under his wife’s name. He recruited phantom drivers, coordinated the staged accidents, and shared the insurance payouts with Master Motors, an associate of E-Motor which he had an ongoing referral arrangement.

He also brought in his “right-hand man”, Rahmat Mohd, to give the phantom drivers and passengers instructions on how they should submit their fake claims. The pair met in 2011 when Sollihin was working as a freelance despatch driver.

Rahmat, 37, was jailed for 74 months in 2016 for his role in the syndicate. Eighty-eight other syndicate members have been dealt with in court so far, with more yet to be dealt with.

When clients approached E-Motor or Master Motors for car repairs, he would ask to borrow their cars to stage accidents, offering them free repair works in exchange for doing so.

After a client agreed, Sollihin would instruct Rahmat to collect the car and engineer an accident. He would then ask the clients to file fake claims with their insurance companies after the accidents, many of which were reported as chain collisions.

Sollihin also instructed several of his clients and Rahmat to pretend they had suffered injuries during the accidents, and to file fraudulent personal injury claims.

Even after he was charged in court and released on bail, he asked his clients to lie for him, saying he intended to “fight the case”.

Seeking at least nine years’ imprisonment, the prosecution said Sollihin had “sought to frustrate the CAD’s (Commercial Affairs Department) investigations” by “tampering with key witnesses whom he knew would be able to identify him as part of the conspiracies”.

The problem of false or inflated injury claims in motor vehicle accidents has been growing in recent years, added the prosecution, citing several media reports. These fraudulent claims are “hard to detect”, “economically unfeasible to challenge”, and have a direct impact on the general insurance premiums that all motorists pay.

However, Sollihin’s lawyer Kalidass Murugaiyan told the court that the real mastermind of the crimes was another individual, and that Sollihin was merely coordinating the offences, while Rahmat’s role was to execute them.

Mr Kalidass said that his client had given the mastermind’s name and contact number to the police, and provided “invaluable information” about the offences.

Asking for no more than six years’ jail, the lawyer added that Sollihin’s wife had given birth to their fifth child in February, and that his other children are aged between six and 15 years old. The family is also facing financial difficulties, and will be “left stranded” without his financial and emotional support.

For cheating, Sollihin could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined. For attempting to pervert the course of justice, he could have been jailed up to seven years and fined.