Civil servant held for insurance scam over missing Vellfire

 Police said the man and his brother plotted to break up the vehicle for parts after reporting it as missing.

File picture of a Toyota Vellfire. A civil servant in Perlis has been arrested over an alleged insurance scam by reporting his wife’s Toyota Vellfire as missing. (Wikipedia pic)

KANGAR:

A 42-year-old civil servant and his brother have been arrested for allegedly staging the disappearance of a Toyota Vellfire in an insurance scam. Police said they planned to break up the car for its parts.

Padang Besar police chief Shokri Abdullah said the civil servant and three others, aged between 32 and 45, were arrested in raids at three locations in Padang Besar and Arau yesterday.

He said the main suspect was the civil servant, who used his wife’s black Toyota Vellfire to travel to Kuala Lumpur on July 16 to attend a course. “At about 8am on July 17, he lodged a police report claiming that the vehicle had gone missing in Sungai Besi,” Shokri said in a statement today.

Investigations found that the reported loss was believed to have been staged by the main suspect and his 45-year-old brother to facilitate an insurance claim. Two other men, both aged 32, were believed to have assisted in the plan, in which the vehicle was to be taken to a workshop in Kaki Bukit, Padang Besar to be dismantled, with valuable components collected for sale, he said.

The price of a used Vellfire ranges from RM140,000 to RM200,000 while the official on the road price of a new Vellfire starts at RM448,000.

He said all four suspects had been taken to the Cheras police station in Selangor for remand proceedings.

Shokri said police viewed seriously any attempt to misuse reports for personal gain or profit, as such actions compromised investigations and wasted enforcement resources. - FMT