Insurance firms defrauded with stolen ID, faked death

Three insurance companies have paid out close to N$550 000 to a man who is accused of faking the death of a woman to claim payouts in her name.

He is also accused of using a stolen national identity card to claim payouts on the life and funeral policies in the woman’s name.

The fraud that the man, Martinus Nepolo (26), allegedly committed is recounted in documents filed at the Windhoek High Court in an application to freeze a bank account of Nepolo in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

A provisional preservation of property order, stating that funds in Nepolo’s account must be safeguarded pending an application to have the money forfeited, was issued by High Court judge Hannelie Prinsloo five weeks ago.

The order was extended to 6 August by acting judge George Coleman on Friday last week.

The money in Nepolo’s account is the proceeds of unlawful activities, namely fraud, forgery, uttering and money laundering, prosecutor general Martha Imalwa says in a sworn statement filed at the court.

Imalwa informed the court that a criminal case against Nepolo was registered with the police in April, after an employee of the insurance company Momentum Metropolitan Namibia became suspicious about a claim on a funeral policy submitted by Nepolo on 3 April.

During an investigation by the police, it was established that Nepolo also submitted claims on funeral and life policies with the insurance companies Sanlam Namibia, Bonlife Assurance Namibia and Hollard Life, Imalwa said.

The three companies paid a total amount of N$549 038 into Nepolo’s bank account on 4, 5 and 6 April, with Sanlam paying close to N$250 000 on the basis of four policies, Hollard paying N$250 000 and Bonlife paying N$49 795.

All of the claims submitted by Nepolo were based on allegations that a woman in whose name policies had been taken out with the insurance companies in October last year had been killed in a road accident in Windhoek on 1 April.

However, it turned out that the woman reported to have been killed on 1 April is still alive.

Nepolo descibed the woman variously as his fiancée, girlfriend and sister when he took out the policies, Imalwa said.

The woman informed the police in April that she was robbed in Windhoek in February last year. Her handbag, with her national identity card inside, was stolen during the robbery.

That identity card was used when Nepolo filed claims against the life and funeral policies that had been taken out in the woman’s name, Imalwa said.

It was also established that a post-mortem examination report and a road accident report submitted to the insurance companies with the claims on the policies taken out by Nepolo were forged, Imalwa recounted.

Before the claims were paid out to Nepolo, his account had a positive balance of N$142,60, she said.

After the claims were paid out, cash withdrawals totalling N$50 000 were made from Nepolo’s account on 4 April and again on 5 April, the court was informed as well.

By the end of May, Nepolo’s account had a positive balance of about N$439 000.

By then, the Financial Intelligence Centre of the Bank of Namibia had placed a hold on the account, in effect freezing it until the prosecutor general applied for the provisional property preservation order in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.