Insurance agent charged after he allegedly pocketed over $2k of client’s money
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Shahul Hamid N.A. Basheer Ahamed, 41, is accused of committing the offences in 2025.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
SINGAPORE – An insurance agent who allegedly retained more than $2,000 of a client’s money for his own use has been charged with three counts of cheating and one count of criminal breach of trust.
Shahul Hamid N.A. Basheer Ahamed, 41, is accused of committing the offences in 2025. He was handed the charges on April 8.
In a statement on April 7, the police said a victim made a report stating that she could not make claims for outstanding medical bills involving over $56,000, even though she paid the premiums.
Shahul is listed as an agent on the General Insurance Association’s website on April 8. Court documents do not disclose details about his employer at the time of his alleged offences.
According to the documents, a female client allegedly entrusted more than $2,000 to him to pay her family’s insurance premiums.
He is accused of retaining the money for his own use between May and July 2025.
It is unclear for now if she is the same woman mentioned in the police statement.
Shahul is also accused of duping the client into believing that she was covered under a “special premium scheme” on June 29 that year.
He also allegedly cheated a firm called Pan Asia Intercontinental, and is said to have duped it into believing that the woman was one of its staff. He is also accused of applying for her to be covered under its corporate insurance plan.
Pan Asia Intercontinental allegedly approved her coverage soon after.
Police said in an earlier statement that officers received a report from a victim on Sept 17, 2025.
A police spokesperson added: “(She) was unable to make a claim from her personal insurance policy for outstanding medical bills amounting to $56,444.51, despite making premium payments to an insurance agent.
“Through investigations, officers established that the man, who was working as an insurance agent, had allegedly failed to secure a personal insurance policy for the victim.”
Instead, he purportedly placed the victim under a corporate hospital plan without her knowledge, even though she was not an employee of the company linked to it, the police said.
Shahul’s case will be mentioned again in court on May 6.
For criminal breach of trust as an agent, an offender can be jailed for up to 20 years and fined.
For each count of cheating, an offender can be jailed for up to three years, fined or both.
