A businessman has been jailed seven months for conspiring to swindle $700,000 from an insurance company by making a bogus death claim in relation to a Mainland woman.

Wong Yiu-tong, 53, pleaded guilty at Eastern Magistracy to one count of conspiracy to defraud, and one of attempting to procure the making of an entry in a record of a bank by deception.

The court heard that on July 15, 2002, the defendant took out a life-medical insurance policy with MassMutual Asia in the name of Wong Oi-lin, a resident of Qingxin County, Guangdong, at an insured sum of $700,000.

Sole beneficiary

The defendant falsely claimed he was Wong's elder brother and the sole beneficiary of the policy. He further alleged she was struck by lightning and died in Gaozhou City on August 19, 2002.

To support his claim, the defendant submitted to MassMutual a number of bogus documents obtained by co-conspirators Tang Lam-piu and Cheng Hon-chung.

An Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation found Wong was neither related to the defendant nor acquainted with him, and that she knew nothing about the policy.

Gaozhou meteorologists also confirmed no lightning or thunderstorm was recorded on August 19, 2002.