Asked to consider imposing a jail term of five to six months on an accomplice of a motor insurance fraud, a district judge asked prosecutors if they had considered the offender’s “exceptional circumstances”, including the fact that he has seven dependants relying on his income.

Mohamed Rossly Mohamed Kassim, 40, had taken to being the phantom driver in a staged accident to scam an insurance company after being riddled with hospital bills after his daughter was afflicted by a life-threatening condition.

The S$35,500 claim was unsuccessful as AXA Insurance suspected fraud. And the SMRT technical officer will now go to jail for five months, despite his lawyer’s plea for a shorter sentence of two to three months.

In sentencing, District Judge Low Wee Ping said to Rossly: “I convey my sympathies for what you have gone through. You have committed an offence, you have to face the punishment. I hope you will be able to take ‘no-pay leave’ and that SMRT (will continue to employ you). I want to assure you that you could have faced a much higher sentence.”

During mitigation, defence lawyer Lee Mong Jen said her client’s family situation when he became embroiled in the massive fraud ring — involving more than S$1 million in bogus claims over two years — was “definitely out of the ordinary”.

Rossly’s daughter suffered from biliary atresia, a life-threatening condition where one is born without bile ducts. Baby Auni urgently needed a new liver, but failed in getting a transplant after four near misses.

Her medical bills reportedly totalled up to S$280 a month, with another S$320 to S$400 needed for nutritional supplements. Auni spent her last days in ICU and was put on life support before she died from a pulmonary haemorrhage in January 2012, just before her first birthday.

Months later, Rossly was recruited by Rahmat Mohd, the right-hand man to the mastermind of the fraud ring. He took up the job and “collided” with two other cars at Bukit Batok heavy-vehicle car park on July 17 but failed in the claim and received nothing.

Pleading for leniency, Ms Lee said: “He was confronted with exceptional circumstances and fell prey to the ‘lifeline’ offered by Rahmat.”

She added that Rossly is now the sole breadwinner providing for his wife and two young children, two sons from his first marriage (Auni’s older brothers), and his aged parents.

A shorter jail term may allow him to request for no-pay leave from his employer, instead of having to leave his job, Ms Lee said.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Kenneth Chin agreed that Rossly’s circumstances should be taken into consideration, but stressed that they must not be given “undue weight”.

He noted that the prosecution had proceeded with only one charge against Rossly, and had taken two other counts into consideration.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by Kelly Ng

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