A man stunned a Mombasa court after pleading guilty to defrauding an insurance company of Sh600,000 by faking the deaths of his close relatives.
Mr Philip Odero Kauma faked the deaths of his daughter, mother and mother-in-law to claim Old Mutual Insurance company’s last respect expenses.
According to the charge sheet, the suspect obtained Sh600,000 from the insurance company by falsely claiming that his daughter and mother had died.
He was further charged with attempting to obtain a further Sh500,000 from the insurance firm by falsifying the death of his mother-in-law.
Appearing before Resident Magistrate Viola Muthoni, the suspect pleaded guilty to the offences that the state alleged he committed on July 2, September 2 and October 5, 2021.
According to investigations, Mr Kauma enrolled in the insurance’s last respect expense policy on May 3, 2021.
He did this through the Kenya Commercial Bank agent for the company.
Mr Kauma then paid the full-year premium of Sh17,000 and named his wife, six children, his mother, mother-in-law, and father-in-law as beneficiaries.
The suspect notified the insurance company, through its KCB agent, of his daughter’s death on June 17, the same year, about a month after enrolling in the policy. He claimed that the death occurred on June 16 in the Bofu Dimbwini area in Mombasa.
According to the investigators, the company processed the claim on July 2 and paid him Sh100,000 as a final expense via his bank account at Mwembe Tayari KCB Branch.
The following month, on August 31, 2021, Mr Kauma yet again notified the insurer of the death of his mother, whom he claimed died a day before the notice in the Ganahola area, according to investigations.
According to investigators, the suspect obtained a burial permit from the Kwashee area assistant chief.
The insurance company then paid the final expense in two Sh250,000 instalments on September 2 and October 5, respectively.
Mr Kauma filed another claim with the insurance company on November 19 of the same year. This time, he claimed his mother-in-law had died, and the suspect needed money to cover funeral expenses.
According to police investigations, the insurance company became suspicious of the number of deaths that were happening to their customers.
The firm then conducted an investigation into the claim. The incident was reported to the Insurance Fraud Investigations Unit of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
Investigations revealed that all of the alleged deceased people were alive, except for his daughter, who died in 2015 before he enrolled in the policy.
The detectives discovered that the suspect had misled public officers by claiming that the two had died before being granted burial permits.
The suspect was arrested on February 8, at Vijiweni Mtongwe village before being presented to the court.
His family also attended the court session where he pleaded guilty to three offences of obtaining money by false pretences.
Mr Kauma has been remanded at the Shimo La Tewa prison pending further court actions.
The matter will be mentioned on February 13.
