Police have arrested three life insurance agents who embezzled 52 million baht from policy buyers, and 11 people who used fake Covid-19 test results to claim insurance payouts.
Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) commissioner, Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop Bhuridej, said the trio were arrested yesterday by Economic Crime Suppression Division (ECSD) officers.
They had collected money from buyers of life policies but did not pass the money on to the insurance company. This deprived their customers of their right to coverage under the policies they believed they had purchased. The duped policyholders are estimated to have suffered damages totalling about 52 million baht, the CIB chief said.
He also said ECSD police and officials from the Office of the Insurance Commission (OIC) had examined claims during the spread of Covid-19 and found that 21 people had used false Covid-19 results to each claim 50,000-baht in insurance.
Eleven have been charged with falsifying documents to claim insurance, he said.
Police will now also apply for court arrest warrants for the people who enticed the suspects into filing the false Covid claims.
Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop said a police investigation found that those filing the false Covid-19 test results each got 20,000 baht per insurance claim. He said 30,000 baht went to those who falsified the test results.
OIC deputy secretary-general Chaiyut Mangsri and Pol Maj Gen Phutthidet Boonkraphue, the ECSD chief, also attended the media briefing.
The National Health Security Office (NHSO), meanwhile, is looking into 30,000 complaints of private hospitals levying undue extra fees for Covid-19 treatment, despite receiving reimbursement via the government's Ucep Covid programme.
"Only a third of the hospitals under investigation has produced evidence to justify the charges," said Dr Jadej Thammatacharee, secretary-general of the NHSO, yesterday.
This means in the rest of the cases currently being probed, the hospitals will have to return the money to the patients, he said.