Abraham Rock, 36, and his mother, Talat Farman, 54, hatched a plot to fake her death and collect payouts from the Central Provident Fund (CPF) and other insurance companies.

According to Channel News Asia, the claims amounted to $3.77 million, and $129,331 was paid out by the CPF board and NTUC Income.

For their crimes, Rock was jailed on Sep. 26 for 3 years and 10 months, while Talat received a jail term of 13 months.

Devised plot when facing financial difficulties

Rock, The Straits Times reported, was facing financial difficulties in 2017 when he decided to commit insurance fraud by faking his mother's death.

He researched on insurance policies that gave the highest payouts upon the death of the insured person.

Rock also discussed the plot with his Pakistani uncle, Sheikh Muhammad Kamran.

Rock is a Singaporean, while Talat was born in Pakistan, and became a naturalised citizen after getting married in Singapore.

They planned to fake his mother's death in a fatal road accident in Pakistan, as the death benefit coverage was doubled if the death involved the use of public transport.

Rock purchased two additional Great Eastern insurance policies and two additional travel insurance plans from MSIG and AXA for his mother.

His uncle and two cousins assisted by obtaining fake documents needed to certify Talat's death.

Talat agreed to the plan, and they travelled to Islamabad, Pakistan on Jun. 29, 2018.

Mother "died" in Pakistan

Rock obtained the forged documents from his uncle in Islamabad, and received his mother's NRIC and passport before returning to Singapore alone.

He reported his mother's death to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) on Jul. 16, 2018, and provided supporting documents such as a police report, medical report and death certificate, and his mother's identification documents.

An ICA officer then changed Talat's life status to "deceased" in the Central Identification and Registration System, based on the information given.

Afterwards, Rock made an application to the CPF Board to withdraw money from Talat's account, and a total of S$80,331 was delivered to Rock's bank account on Sep. 5, 2018.

The rest of the S$129,331 was paid out by NTUC Income.

He also submitted death benefit insurance claims to various insurance companies, engaging a lawyer to assist in matters related to Talat's "death".

Insurance companies investigated after finding irregularities

AXA and MSIG, two of the insurance companies he had bought plans for Talat from, found irregularities in the documents submitted by Rock, and hired surveyors to authenticate the claims.

Rock gave the surveyors the location of his grandmother's tomb when they asked for the address of his mother's tomb.

Subsequent investigations also showed that Talat was alive and living in Pakistan, so she was repatriated to Singapore in Nov. 2018.

AXA lodged a police report on Nov. 13, 2018 on the basis of a fraudulent death benefit claim of S$508,000 after finding more discrepancies.

Both Rock and Talat pleaded guilty to several charges, mostly of cheating.

Defence: Bulk of payout was technically her own money

Defence lawyer Trent Ng cited several reasons for a lighter sentence for Talat, arguing that the bulk of the actual payout came from the CPF board, which was "in some sense, her own money".

This was countered by the prosecution, responding that she was not entitled to withdraw the money at that point.

Ng also stated that Talat was a "simple-minded lady with no extended family in Singapore", and was also illiterate and hard of hearing.

He added that Talat had played a passive role in the plan, not knowing fully what she was into but that she "had to play dead".

The judge considered the total sum of claims to be "out of the ball park", and also took into account the transnational element in this case, which caused difficulty for evidence-collecting.

Top image via Google Maps