Cold Blooded Fraudsters Murder For Insurance Claims
There is an unsettling trend of fraudsters killing people for their life insurance benefits. There were two recent cases in the media recently. In these cases the perpetrator murdered the victims so that the murderer could access 15 million Rand in claims.
The case came before the Durban Commercial Crimes Court. This story revived memories of the three suspects from KwaZulu-Natal. Last year they sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of eight people. They had arranged the murders of their victims and then fraudulently processed life insurance and funeral cover benefits.
Many South Africans dumbfounded at how criminals defraud insurers and their customers of their hard-earned premiums. The deputy CEO of the Association for Savings and Investment, Peter Dempsey, admitted that it was a worrying trend. It is alarming to think that while you’re working hard to make your monthly premium payments, someone out there could be waiting to do you in and 
cash in on your life insurance. Kohler Bernard of the DA said, “It’s too heartless to even think about…”
Murder for Insurance Claims Common
Unreal as such crimes sound, they are not rare. KZN SAPS spokesman Colonel Jay Naicker agreed that such cases were not entirely unheard of. However, he was quick to reassure the public that the authorities would catch and punish the perpetrators. Evidence on law enforcement cracking down on this particularly gruesome kind of fraud are the three suspects currently facing charges in Newcastle and Hillcrest.
One of These Fraudsters
The first of these is the manager at a security firm who arranged the murder of one of his employees so he could benefit from his R 4 million life insurance payout. The victim, Mr. Umesh Rabilal was robbed by two armed assailants at an in-law’s house while in the company of friends. Even after surrendering his valuables, Rabilal was still shot dead in one of the house’s bedrooms. Not long after the March 2013 incident his boss lodged a claim with the insurance company, claiming that he was the sole beneficiary of the policy. Investigators into the case found that a few months earlier someone claiming to be Umesh Rabilal called the insurance company seeking to take a life cover worth four million Rand.
The work of investigators was made easier as the voice of the person who claimed to be Umesh when signing up for the cover matched that of the person who called to lodge the claim. It turned out to be 56 year-old Rajnath Bisnath owner of SEMR Security Company and a driving school. Police arrested him at his offices in Newcastle but he requested to be released on R10,000 bail.
Another case
The second case, involving a 24 year-old man and his 55 year-old mother, followed the same pattern. The woman, a teacher, lodged a claim as the beneficiary about a week after a certain SifisoHlongwane was found dead in a sugarcane plantation. Her son’s voice was found to match that of the Sifiso who took life cover and named his mother as the sole beneficiary.
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All info was correct at time of publishing