Jail for ex-insurance agent who used client's insurance premiums to pay for home renovation and groceries

SINGAPORE — Facing financial difficulties, a Prudential insurance agent decided to misappropriate more than S$117,000 of his client's money that was meant for insurance premiums to help pay for his home renovation, groceries, car instalment and daily expenses.

Gng Hoon Hong, 48, was sentenced on Thursday (Dec 7) to 20 months' jail after he pleaded guilty to three charges for committing criminal breach of trust.

Three other similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Yeo Zhen Xiong told the court that sometime in 2000, Ms Tung Lei Lei and her husband began buying insurance from Prudential Assurance Company through Gng.

Ms Tung's former colleagues had introduced the agent to the couple.

Ms Tung bought five insurance policies, which consisted of a mix of savings, medical and life insurance, through Gng and the premiums totalled about S$15,000 annually.

She came to trust the agent over the years and he also assisted in handling insurance matters when her husband died in 2009.

Whenever the insurance premium payments were due, Gng would inform Ms Tung who would then transfer the funds to him to make payment to Prudential.

However, starting from 2012, Gng did not transfer all the sums received and instead took some of it for his own use, said DPP Yeo.

On Aug 16, 2018, Gng approached Ms Tung to borrow S$10,000 which he purportedly claimed was for an animal shelter.

Suspecting that the agent might be facing financial difficulties, Ms Tung decided to make an enquiry with Prudential and discovered that three of her insurance policies had lapsed as premiums were not paid.

She confronted Gng a few days later and he showed her a printout from Prudential's website which indicated that one of the lapsed policies was purportedly in force.

This printout had, in fact, been doctored by Gng.

The court heard that at the time of the confrontation, Gng did not tell Ms Tung the truth about the lapsed policies and claimed that he was attempting to come up with money to repay her.

Ms Tung had also already obtained online access with Prudential for her insurance policies and discovered that three of her policies had indeed lapsed.

She then reported the matter to Prudential who lodged a police report.

Gng was arrested on Feb 21, 2021.

Investigations revealed that, in total, he had misappropriated S$117,160.94 over 32 occasions that spanned approximately 6.5 years.

After Ms Tung discovered what he had done, he made a repayment of S$15,252 to her. No further repayment has been made since.

Gng later claimed that he had misappropriated the money due to financial difficulties. He used the money to pay for his renovation, groceries, car instalment repayments and his daily expenses.

In response to TODAY's queries, Prudential said that Gng is no longer employed by the company.

'ACTIONS HAD SEVERE CONSEQUENCES'

In seeking a jail term of 20 to 24 months, DPP Yeo argued that the misappropriated sum was substantial and Gng's offending was a sustained one that took place over a long period, where he had more than adequate opportunity to own up to his action.

"It cannot be said that the accused had committed the offences in a moment of folly as his actions had taken place as a result of trust in his capacity as an insurance agent," said DPP Yeo.

He added that Gng's actions had severe consequences, too, as it resulted in the affected insurance policies lapsing, leaving the victim without coverage. 

For each charge of committing criminal breach of trust, Gng could have been jailed for up to seven years or fined, or both.