Insurance agent jailed 17 months for cheating S$58,000 from longtime friends, clients

• Selvarajulu Subramaniam worked for Great Eastern Life Assurance at the time of his offences
• He cheated two clients through a fake “refunding” policy
• He also lied to a friend of 15 years that he had lung cancer and needed money to foot his medical bills
• He has since made restitution of S$10,800

SINGAPORE — A 56-year-old insurance agent was sentenced to one year and five months’ jail on Friday (Sept 24) for cheating about S$58,000 from longtime friends he had taken on as clients.

Selvarajulu Subramaniam lied to one victim, who had been his friend for 15 years, that he had lung cancer in order to get S$14,000 from the other man.

Selvarajulu had earlier pleaded guilty to four cheating charges, with another seven similar charges — including criminal breach of trust as an agent — taken into consideration for sentencing.

The Singaporean worked for Great Eastern Life Assurance as a financial advisor at the time of his offences in 2019.

The court heard that among Selvarajulu’s four victims, one of them — Mr G Ravichandran, 56, — had known him for more than 20 years and was his client as well.

The two men met in April 2018 to review a loan policy. During this meeting, Selvarajulu told Mr Ravichandran that he had a “refunding plan” which would let the other man reinstate the cash value of an insurance policy he held with Great Eastern.

Selvarajulu then got Mr Ravichandran to sign a form which would purportedly allow him to receive S$11,700 from the firm, and told him to transfer S$10,200 to Selvarajulu’s bank account once he received the money from Great Eastern.

This meant Mr Ravichandran would get a net refund of S$1,500.

On May 3, 2018, Mr Ravichandran followed his friend’s instructions after receiving a cheque for S$11,700 from Great Eastern.

But a few weeks later, Great Eastern sent him a letter saying he had successfully applied for a second and separate loan policy for that sum.

After making some checks, Mr Ravichandran realised the form Selvarajulu had given him to sign was for a second loan policy. Selvarajulu had also misappropriated the S$10,200 that Mr Ravichandran transferred to him.

The victim then lodged a police report on Oct 15, 2019.

THREE OTHER VICTIMS

Selvarajulu targeted his other victims in a similar fashion.

He cheated S$13,700 from another friend, Madam Shahariah Yusoff, whom he had known for 30 years. He had also been the 55-year-old woman’s financial advisor since 1999.

In September 2017, they met to review her insurance policies when he told her of the same “refunding" policy.

He said that Great Eastern offered this for a term of two years, and she could expect to obtain about S$16,000 as investment returns to be credited into her bank account if she put in a sum of S$13,700.

Mdm Shahariah agreed and signed a form Selvarajulu gave her.

She then contacted him two years later after the two-year term was supposed to have elapsed. He had made two bank transfers totalling S$3,037 but this fell far short of what he had promised.

She approached Great Eastern representatives on her own accord and was told Selvarajulu had lied to her. She then lodged a police report as well.

Selvarajulu also told another victim —Mr Muhammad Juffri Sayadi, 62 — that he was required to pay penalty fees to keep the policies that he and his family held with Great Eastern active, as Mr Juffri had omitted to make payments on multiple monthly payment cycles.

Over multiple occasions from April to July 2019, Mr Juffri transferred about S$8,000 to Selvarajulu’s bank account.

He discovered this was wrong only after being assigned a new financial advisor, who told him to lodge a police report.

Finally, Selvarajulu cheated Mr Vadivelu Satchithanant Venkita Ramanan, 50, of S$14,575 by lying that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and needed money for his hospital bills.

The two men had known each other for about 15 years. Selvarajulu claimed he was unable to reach his wife, who was purportedly abroad, to pay the bills and that he could not do it himself because he had been warded.

Mr Vadivelu made four bank transfers to Selvarajulu in January 2019. He subsequently filed a police report two months later.

Selvarajulu has made restitution of S$10,800 to date.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Ong Xin Jie sought the sentence imposed, saying it had to “sufficiently reflect the predatory character of the accused’s cheating spree”.

Selvarajulu could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined for each cheating offence.