Man staged road accident, roped in whole family to commit insurance fraud

After staging a road accident, he roped in his entire family to commit insurance fraud.

Tan Lek Keong, 28, was jailed for eight months and 12 weeks and fined $4,400 on Thursday.

He was also disqualified from driving for 10 months from the date of his release.

He pleaded guilty to one count each of abetment by conspiracy to do a rash act and abetment by conspiracy to give false information, and two counts of abetment by conspiracy to cheat.

Another four charges of engaging in a conspiracy to cheat were taken into consideration during sentencing.

Tan worked for Teamwork Garage from February to May 2021 and was responsible for finding customers involved in accidents and explaining to them the benefits of getting their cars repaired at his workshop instead of authorised workshops.

In March 2021, Tan and two colleagues from the workshop - Chew Kuo Choon, 25, and Koh Yi Ming, 28 - agreed to stage an accident using Tan's car and lodge fraudulent insurance claims.

This was so Chew could get commission for referring the damaged car to the workshop, and Tan could get free repairs for his car and any money from injury and damage claims.

On March 24, Tan drove Chew and Koh around trying to stage an accident, but failed.

The next day, they agreed Koh would drive instead, but Tan would falsely claim to be the driver.

Only the three of them were in the car.

At around 11.20am, they intentionally collided with a car along Marymount Road, damaging its bumper, which subsequently cost $200 to repair.

No one was injured in the collision.

Tan pretended to be the driver of the car, and later took his parents, wife and brother to a doctor.

They all lied about experiencing pain in their necks and lower backs as a result of the accident, even though Tan's family members were all at home during the "incident".

All five of them were given medical leave from March 25 to 29.

Tan also made a false police report on March 26, lying that he was the driver of the car and his family members were in the car with him.

False insurance claims were then made against Liberty Insurance through Teamwork Garage.

In total, the claims for property damage and personal injury to Tan and his family amounted to more than $70,000.

None of the money was paid out in the end.

But Tan received $1,000 from Chew and Koh for using his family members as phantom passengers, and also around $2,500 for the vehicle damage and $900 for his personal injury claim from Teamwork Garage as commission for allowing his car to be repaired there.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Seah Ee Wei said that while Tan's charges were for abetment, his role was closer to that of a mastermind who had "marshalled his entire family to act as phantom passengers".

Koh and Chew's cases are still before the courts, while Tan's family members have not been charged.

Tan is expected to begin serving his sentence on Nov 1.

If he does not pay the fine by then, he will have to serve an additional two weeks' jail as default.

For each charge of abetting by conspiracy to cheat, Tan could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined.