Left with hefty bill: Chong (right) with the victim during the press conference. — LOW LAY PHON/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: Motor insurance policy holders should check the validity of their policies, especially if they obtained them from third-party sources, as several incidents have shown.
A 58-year-old ehailing driver who met with an accident with a motorist early last month learnt a bitter lesson when he found out the motor insurance policy he took out for his Perodua Axia had been revoked without his knowledge, leaving him to bear the repair costs of more than RM10,000, including repairs on the Mercedes-Benz he collided into.
The driver, who only wanted to be known as Kok, said for the past four years he had renewed the motor insurance for his Axia with an agency in Pudu, including the latest coverage, which he took in October last year for a sum of about RM300.
Kok said he sent his car to a workshop for repairs soon after the accident on May 4 but was told that he could not make a claim as his policy was void.
He said he lodged a complaint with the insurance company and learnt that his signature was forged to revoke his insurance policy.
Shocked by this, he lodged a police report on May 30 and sought the help of MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong.
Chong said his legal team made checks and learnt that the policy issued by the agency was genuine but was cancelled by unknown parties.
“We do not know what the motive behind this is. If the policy had been cancelled, Kok should have received a refund, but he did not. We also do not know if the insurance company has made a refund. We have handled six such cases in the past. We believe there are more cases out there.
“The police commercial crimes division, Road Transport Department and Transport Ministry should thoroughly investigate and uncover this scam,” he told a press conference at Wisma MCA here yesterday.
The department’s legal adviser, James Ee, said the insurance company should take responsibility and bear Kok’s losses as the policy was cancelled without his knowledge.
On another matter, Chong said a video of a naked woman being bound and tortured with claims of her being either a Malaysian or South Korean turned out to be fake.
He said he contacted the Malaysian Embassy in Cambodia. Checks found that the woman in the video was Cambodian.
Chong said the video has been in circulation in Malaysia for the past two weeks and was believed to be a pornographic clip of sado-masochistic acts.
He said he learnt that the videos were circulated after the Cambodian woman died of epilepsy recently.
