'Stunt driver' who was involved in staged accidents to cheat insurers jailed 38 months
He was a “stunt driver” whose role was to brake abruptly in front of unsuspecting drivers to cause a collision.
Malaysian Saravanan Varathan, 39, would then make police reports and claim insurance for the damages.
Saravanan was part of a syndicate that demanded $162,377.90 in damages from insurers. Out of these, $68,953.70 was paid out by insurers who were duped by the staged accidents. None of the payouts has been returned as restitution.
On Monday (23 July), Saravanan was jailed 38 months after he pleaded guilty in court to nine counts of cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property by submitting fraudulent property damage claims against insurance companies Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance, NTUC Income Insurance, Tokio Marine Insurance and MSIG Insurance.
Nineteen other charges, including reckless driving, giving false information to the police, were taken into consideration for his sentencing.
The court heard that Saravanan had entered Singapore for the purpose of staging traffic accidents between 2012 and 2013.
He was part of a syndicate that staged accidents for the purpose of making fake motor insurance claims. As part of its operations, the syndicate recruited individuals to be the drivers or passengers for the staged accidents or allow their personal particulars to be used in reports. The individuals were promised money in return.
Saravanan was introduced into the syndicate by Malaysian Tang Jui Peng, who was regarded as a mastermind behind the syndicate. Finding the scam lucrative, Saravanan requested to be part of it.
Tang, who is at large, paid Saravanan $200 for every accident in which he acted as a stunt driver. Saravanan acted as the stunt driver for five accidents.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Stacey Anne Fernandez sought at least 40 months’ jail for Saravanan, whom she said played a “pivotal role in engineering the accidents”.
“These traffic accidents were engineered with complete disregard for the lives and safety of other innocent road users,” said the DPP.
The prosecutor also cited a need to deter like-minded offenders as motor insurance frauds were hard to detect and affected the delivery of financial services.
Lawyer Skandarajah Selvarajah, who was acting for Saravanan pro bono, said that asked for less than 40 months, given that another syndicate member previously received 30 months even though he faced more charges. He added that his client did not receive a substantial amount of the payout.
For the offence of cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, Saravanan could have been jailed up to ten years and may have been fined.
