A former customer care consultant with Etiqa Insurance abused his employer’s computer system for approval of travel insurance claims, a court heard.

Nigel Rhys Lee Kok Meng, now 37, submitted 14 bogus travel claims on the online system involving a total payout of $3,459.

At the State Courts on Wednesday (16 January), Lee was sentenced to 12 weeks’ jail, having pleaded guilty to four charges of computer misuse.

Lee worked for Etiqa as a customer care consultant from July 2017 to 31 August last year. His work involved assisting customers on matters relating to Etiqa’s insurance products.

Lee got to know that Etiqa’s online self-service portal would approve claims without sending them to an officer for review if the amount involved was below $250, and provided that it was not the second claim made by the same insured person in a particular month.

He then hatched a plan to submit fake claims using his father’s or sister’s particulars, or those of fictitious persons. His father and sister were unaware of his plan. To carry out the ploy, Lee created email accounts and bought pre-paid mobile numbers.

He would buy a travel insurance plan and then submit false claims for damaged luggages worth $249. He would search online for a photo of a purported damaged luggage and attach it to each claim.

Etiqa’s compliance unit was alerted to the scam when the system detected that two claims had been submitted under the same name, but with two different identity card numbers. An internal audit was then carried out and Lee’s ploy unravelled.

Lee has since made full restitution of $3,459 to his former employer. He will start serving his sentence next month and is out on $15,000 bail.

For unauthorised access to computer material, Lee could have been fined up to $5,000 and jailed up to two years per charge.

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