Ex-insurance agent jailed for misappropriating $22,000 from client

An insurance agent with Prudential, who created two fake insurance certificates after collecting $22,000 from a client, was jailed for 21/2 months on Monday.

Lim Hwee Chong, 32, pleaded guilty to committing criminal breach of trust. He had befriended Ms Tan Huishi, 30, sometime in 2010. She was then a human resource consultant and bought two Prudential policies from him last year. He bought the policies in his own name instead.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Gregory Gan told the court how Lim purchased a Prulink SuperGrowth policy for $12,000 in May last year and surrendered it two weeks later to collect $11,000 from Prudential and used the money to settle his debts.

In August last year, Ms Tan, asked him for the certificates for the policies and Lim created the fake certificates. When she received them. she grew suspicious as these were different from previous certificates issued by Prudential.

She called the insurance firm and discovered she was not the owner of the policies. She then went to the police.

Defence counsel Amarick Gill asked for a lenient sentence as his client had repaid the full sum. Now unemployed, Lim, who is single, could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined.

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