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Fraud inquiry uncovers hand of insurance company worker
Forged identity cards have been used to make a multi-million rupee claim from an insurance company, fraud investigators say.
The Colombo Fraud Bureau says conmen have claimed Rs 4.8 million from a businessman’s insurance policy with the help of an employee of the insurance company.
CFB director, S.P Rohan Premaratne said this was uncovered after a complaint was filed on July 5 by Weerasami Kumaran a businessman from Wattala.
S.P Premaratne said Mr Kumaran had met his friend’s daughter’s husband identified as “Manohara,” an employee of the insurance company.
“Manohara requested his identity card number and insurance number and contacted him again on June 26 saying savings of 48,036.524 Rupees have been withdrawn for a medical condition,” he said.
Then Mr Kumaran was asked to come to the head office. Mr Kumaran did so on July 4 and said he had not withdrawn money. But the insurance company had shown him the withdrawal document and an affidavit.
Mr Kumaran had noticed that his son Kumaran Rahul’s details were included with his drivers’ licence and identity card details. But the signature was different, in that, he could not sign in Sinhala.
Mr Kumaran also noticed that an account had been opened under his name at HSBC on 2015. 08. 04. He noticed that a cheque No 406596 had been transferred to the new account.
“The fraud bureau informed the Colombo Magistrates’ Courts and started to investigate the head of the insurance company. We found that that the documents had been filled and had been certified by officers of their company,” SP Premaratne said.
Investigators made inquiries at Yakkala Hatton National Bank branch and found information regarding the cheques and accounts and traced the persons who withdrew the money. They found two other signatures identical to that of the account holder.
With court permission, investigators obtained a detailed report and found that one account belonged to Samantha Jayasinghe a resident of Yakkala, who received Rs 1 million in 2015, SP Premaratne said.
The second account holder was identified as Weerasami Kumaran who impersonated the complainant.
The bank manager in his statement said that the second account belonged to R International PVT Ltd owned by Weerasami Kumaran who was introduced by Samantha Jayasinghe, that he wanted to open an account.
Samantha Jayasinghe was suspected of direct involvement and was arrested on 2018. 10. 07. A search of his premises uncovered details of a Nissan March car imported under the name of R International Pvt Ltd using Rs 2 million from the accounts.
From the statement of the suspect it was revealed that two others were involved. They have paid a resident of Wattala identified as Nawagamu Pathiranalage Ravindra Ratnapriya and Kahandawa Arachchige Ananada Wimalasiri, an employee of the insurance company who helped them with the approval of documents. He was arrested on 2018. 10. 05.
Police have identified Ravindra Ratnapriya, a Wattala communications shop owner, who had photocopied the identity card, passport and drivers’ licence and provided them to Mr Jayasinghe who forged them before submitting them to Ananda to impersonate the complainant Mr Kumaran.
S.P Premaratne said that this was only one among many such cases reported. He urged people to be careful when using identity cards, drivers’ licence, passports, and birth certificates, which could be used for fraud.