Man accused of faking wife’s death for 10 million baht

A man has been arrested for fraud after allegedly faking the death of his wife to claim 10 million baht from life insurance companies. The man denied the charge and blamed his wife and brother-in-law instead. He did insist on paying back the insurance companies that were scammed.

The Central Investigations Bureau (CIB) was notified about the fraud and after a short investigation arrested the accused, a 44 year old man named Chavit on Saturday, at a house on Bang Waek Road in the Taling Chan district of Bangkok.

According to Khaosod, Chavit and his wife bought life insurance from several companies in February 2015. Then, each company was notified about the death of the wife and paid the family over 10 million baht.

Chavit acknowledged the charges against him but maintained his innocence. He said that his brother-in-law did the crime under his name and did not get any money from the fake death.

Chavit explained that his brother-in-law worked with a community leader in Chiang Mai to issue a false death certificate and submit it to the insurance companies. He was not sure whether his wife was involved or not and did not know where the money went.

Chavit said he divorced his wife immediately after learning about the cheating. He did not know where his ex-wife and his brother-in-law were but believed that they were on the run from the arrest.

Chavit said that he tried to pay back the insurance companies, adding that he did not mean to escape arrest but forgot about his court summons.

Similar cases happened last year with a Covid-19 insurance scheme called “Found, Paid, Done.” The president of the Thai General Insurance Association, Anon Vangvasu, reported that many insurance companies were duped with false Covid infection certifications and lost over 500 million baht in total.

Many insurance companies faced huge financial losses and some of them have requested bankruptcy protection.