Police on Thursday said they arrested six men and three women over suspected fraudulent travel insurance claims totalling HK$1.7 million.

Officers said the arrestees were suspected to have worked under a crime syndicate, filing some 70 claims over trips they made last year, when in fact they never left Hong Kong during the period.

Seven of them are suspected to have filed claims using forged documents such as flight tickets, hotel receipts and hospital attendance records, while the other two are suspected of helping the syndicate.

Lam Ho-lim, a senior inspector from the force's commercial crime bureau, said the claimants reported they had suffered from minor problems, and some of the suspects are current or former insurance agents.

"The suspects claimed that between April and November last year, they had visited countries like Vietnam, Japan, Italy and Singapore," he told reporters.

"They said they suffered from similar symptoms or injuries and visited the same hospitals in those countries. They then filed the suspicious insurance claims to agencies."

Lam said the arrestees are suspected to have used phone numbers provided by the syndicate and opened accounts at designated banks, taking out cash after the claims were approved.

He said the Hong Kong Federation of Insurers helped in the force's investigation by providing documents for officers to probe and analyse.

Officers said each claim in this case ranged from several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars.

The force stressed the public shouldn't think they can get away with gaining small amounts of money through deception, as the maximum penalty for fraud is 14 years behind bars.



Edited by Tony Sabine