Another case of useless mata and MP

[Sammyboy RSS Feed]

An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

ANOTHER CASE OF POLICE INCOMPETENCE IN RESOLVING ISSUES OF AVERAGE CITIZENS
Post date:
6 Sep 2014 - 5:10pm

The case

Getting hospitalized after being injured in an accident is unpleasant enough. Making an insurance claim against the liable party only adds to the misery & stress for the victim. But to also become a victim of a crime linked to the original accident, and one that the police seemingly are unable to solve even after 5 long years is something that really takes the cake.

For Ms. Karyn Kwek though, this actually happened to her after she slipped on a puddle of water and fell on her back inside Plaza Singapura on April 19th 2009. She was rushed to Changi General Hospital (CGH) by a SCDF ambulance where it was found that she suffered a hairline fracture on her spine. After her discharge, she filed a claim for compensation against Capitamalls, the owner of Plaza Singapura, who referred the matter to MSIG-Asia, their insurer.

On September 7th 2009, she received a letter (ref no 242468) from MSIG-Asia requesting her cooperation so that they could offer her a reasonable offer of settlement. Apparently no follow-up action was taken for almost 2 years, for in April 2011 Ms. Khew filed a complaint against the insurer to the MAS. The MAS said that they have demanded that MSIG-Asia reply to her within 4 days copied to the MAS in a letter dated April 8th 2011 (ref no IID CSI 04/2003). MSIG-Asia then sent her a letter dated April 14th 2011 (ref no 242468 PLY) requesting for a detailed breakdown for her claim & relevant supporting documents. On April 9th 2012 (& possibly even earlier than this) MSIG-Asia confirmed receiving the relevant medical reports & x-ray images from CGH & Raffles Hospital.

What began as a straightforward case of a claim against a property owner soon became something worse. MSIG referred Ms. Kwek’s claim to their lawyer to work out a settlement. In July 2012, an elderly woman, Ms. Hannah Lim, approached her in Raffles City for help in seeing a doctor, as she felt unwell. About a month later, on August 12th 2012, Ms. Lim, who was actually an associate of the lawyer under instructions to keep tabs on Ms. Kwek’s actions, stole the latter’s credit card to buy a bottle of Dior anti-wrinkle cream costing $180/- while they were out shopping together at Tangs Vivocity outlet.

Ms. Kwek discovered the theft of her credit card shortly after and filed a police report on August 28th 2012 (report no A/20120828/2031). SIO Siti Rahimah bte Asmad of Cantonment Police Division HQ was assigned to the case. On August 31st 2012, Ms. Kwek filed report no D/20120831/0104 seeking police assistance; SSgt Jahaury & Sgt Rauf were assigned to view the video evidence of the crime captured by the CCTV. The video verified that it was Ms. Lim and not Ms. Kwek herself who signed the credit card payment slip.

Naturally, when the bill from her bank OCBC arrived, she refused to pay it. Instead, she repeatedly requested that OCBC send her the payment slip so that she could verify whether she had actually signed it as well as a request that the bank review the video evidence. She has yet to receive any reply from the bank on this. Instead, all she received was a letter dated April 16th 2014 replying to an email she sent them dated April 8th 2014 saying that the bank had reviewed their original investigation into the case and found no new evidence that her credit card had been misused for an unauthorized purchase.

Frustrated by the lack of progress in her case, Ms. Kwek approached her MP, BG Tan Chuan-Jin for help on November 11th 2013. She then received a letter from the police (ref no SPD 10383-2013) dated November 14th 2013 stating that the matter had been referred to Clementi Police Division. She approached BG Tan about this issue 2 more times before finally concluding that seeing him was pointless.

On December 31st 2012, Ms. Kwek faxed over a letter to the MAS regarding her longstanding unresolved insurance claim, followed by a telephone conversation on January 3rd 2013 with Ms. Stella Kao of the Consumer Issues Division. She received a written reply dated January 4th 2013 (ref no SCD CSI 04/2013) stating that MSIG-Asia had been requested to reply to her concerns directly on the matter, copied to the MAS.

On February 18th 2013, Ms. Kwek finally tracked Ms. Lim down herself and convinced her to confess to her crime to the police (report no A/20130218/2003). It was here that the entire rigmarole unraveled. Ms. Lim confessed that MSIG-Asia’s lawyer had instructed her to “complicate and confuse” Ms. Khew’s insurance claims so that it could be time-barred i.e. nullified due to expiry of deadline. Despite Ms. Lim’s confession though, the police still did not arrest her or the lawyer for it, let alone wrap up the case.

Exasperated at BG Tan’s apparently inability to resolve the matter for her, Ms. Kwek wrote to Ms. Sylvia Lim, chairman of the Workers’ Party & MP for Aljunied GRC for advise. Ms. Lim replied that MSIG-Asia had no right to time-bar her case, as they never provided a deadline to Capitamalls or to Ms. Kwek in the very first place i.e. without a set expiry date for the case, the case has still not expired. Out of desperation, she finally turned to TR Emeritus for help to tell her story in the hope that publicizing it will finally force the authorities to resolve it as the mainstream media were apparently unwilling or unable to report it.

Items of supporting evidence

To prove her claims, Ms. Kwek provided the following as items of supporting evidence:

Letter from MSIG-Asia, ref no 242468, dated 07/09/2009

Letter from MAS, ref no IID CSI 04/2003, dated 08/04/2011

Letter from MSIG-Asia, ref no 242468 PLY, dated 14/04/2011

Police report, report no A/20120828/2031, dated 28/08/2012

Card identifying SIO Siti Rahimah bte Asmad as case Investigating Officer

Police case card, report no D/20120831/0104, dated 31/08/2012

Letter from OCBC, dated 16/04/2014

Letter from SPF, ref no SPD 10383-2013, dated 14/11/2013

Letter from MAS, ref no SCD CSI 04/2013, dated 04/01/2013

Confession from Ms. Lim, report no A/20130218/2003, dated 18/02/2013

Critical analysis

MSIG-Asia fully deserves brickbats for dragging the issue of Ms. Kwek’s compensation for so long. Did they receive all of the required documents from her? According to Ms. Lim’s confession, they did. If they didn’t, then they should have contacted her to provide them with what they needed. And if they had any doubts about Ms. Kwek, they could easily have written in to her doctor to clarify matters or even arrange for her to undergo a medical examination by their own panel doctor.

Ms. Kwek’s repeated complaints to the MAS against MSIG-Asia suggest that the insurer is dragging its feet at resolving her claim. Clearly, the MAS can and should do more to pressure MSIG-Asia to resolve the matter, in particular the time-bar issue.

As MP for Marine Parade GRC, BG Tan deserves his share of brickbats for his cluelessness in resolving the matter for Ms. Kwek. As this is a legal matter and he is not a lawyer, nobody expects him to have any ready answers for her. However, he could, and should have sought advice from his town council’s legal advisers or even his lawyer comrades in parliament instead of allowing the matter to drag on indefinitely.

OCBC’s Customer Service Department appears to think that their department’s initials CSD actually means Clueless Staff Department. Did they ever ask themselves just why Ms. Kwek would file a police report for the theft of her credit card, or report its loss to them if she had authorized its use by Ms. Lim? Moreover, even if Ms. Kwek DID use it to buy a gift for Ms. Lim, she would still have to sign the payment slip herself and not allow Ms. Lim to sign it on her behalf. In any case, the bank could have made an appointment for Ms. Kwek to visit the Credit Card Department to view the payment slip & compare her own actual signature with the one on the slip. And of course, in the presence of Ms. Kwek, they could have gotten the police to show them the security video of Ms. Lim signing the payment slip. Hopefully they are able to tell the difference between Ms. Kwek herself and a woman old enough to be her mother. One can’t help but wonder if the bank’s staff even know this though, seeing as how they seem unaware that Ms. Kwek would still have to sign for any purchase made using her card herself, even if it was intended as a gift for someone else.

The harshest criticisms should be directed at the police. Ms. Kwek had identified Ms. Hannah Lim as the person who stole her credit card in her police report. The security video also showed Ms. Lim signing the payment slip for the purchase of the Dior anti-wrinkle cream, meaning that they know what she looks like. Ms. Kwek had even managed to track Ms. Lim down and convinced her to confess to the crime. So WHY is it then that the police are STILL unable to solve the case despite all the evidence they have at hand? Of course, there are those who would argue that Ms. Kwek could have forged the confession since it was unsigned as it was filed online but even so, the police could easily have called them both up for questioning and ascertained the truth of the matter from the interviews.

Considering that the Singapore Police Force is every bit as good as if not better than the FBI (according to Law Minister K. Shanmugam at least, who apparently seems unaware that the FBI is a federal police force for a nation of 300,000,000 people encompassing 3,200,000 miles2 and not a mere city of 5,200,000 people encompassing 275.8 miles2 like Singapore), and which certainly was good enough to conclude that Dr. Shane Todd committed suicide before the Coroner’s Inquest was even convened, their inability to solve a straightforward case of fraud like this one is shocking to say the least.

In conclusion

Ms. Kwek’s problem has dragged on for far too long. It’s about time the relevant authorities get their respective acts together to resolve the matter. In particular, the police should resolve the credit card fraud issue immediately since they have most if not all the evidence they need, especially since Ms. Lim’s confession stated that she committed her crime so as to complicated Ms. Kwek’s claim. Resolve this issue, and the insurance claim issue will also fall into place.

Unless of course the authorities actually have absolutely no interest in resolving the matter at all, that is.

http://therealsingapore.com/content/...erage-citizens


Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com.