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SINGAPORE: For over two years, a man forged medical invoices over 57 occasions to obtain more than S$12,000 (US$9,300) in medical reimbursement from his company’s healthcare insurer.<\/p>\n
Bhutra Ravi, 51, was sentenced to 20 weeks’ jail on Thursday (Jun 4).<\/p>\n
The Indian national pleaded guilty to one charge of cheating, with another three charges taken into consideration.<\/p>\n
The court heard that Bhutra worked as a principal consultant at Temenos Singapore, a software company, from September 2017.<\/p>\n
Bhutra was eligible for the company’s healthcare insurance policy with AIA and he could also claim reimbursement of healthcare expenses incurred by his wife and children.<\/p>\n
However, these claims could only be made if the expenses were legitimately incurred by him or his dependents while he was employed by Temenos.<\/p>\n
Bhutra began abusing the insurance policy and claimed reimbursement using forged medical invoices.<\/p>\n
Between March 2023 and August 2025, Bhutra made fraudulent claims with AIA on 57 occasions for medical reimbursement, even though he had not paid such medical fees.<\/p>\n
He would use software to forge the medical invoice using an existing invoice and submit the claims to AIA.<\/p>\n
AIA disbursed a total of S$12,349.88 to Bhutra’s bank account.<\/p>\n
He submitted claims for sums in the hundreds, for services such as dental work and services from an eye hospital.<\/p>\n
As the forged invoices appeared legitimate, the cheating went undetected for more than two years until around September 2025, when an AIA representative detected abnormalities in his invoices and lodged a police report, court documents stated.<\/p>\n
The prosecution said Bhutra was first contacted to assist in investigations around September 2025.<\/p>\n
It was only after he knew that AIA had detected the suspicious nature of his fraudulent claims and had filed a police report that he stopped making the claims.<\/p>\n
Bhutra later made full restitution of the sum to AIA.<\/p>\n
The prosecution sought five to six months’ jail for Bhutra.<\/p>\n
His lawyer, Ms Tania Chin from Lighthouse Law, sought no more than three months’ jail.<\/p>\n
She said her client would be unlikely to find work in a similar role again and would have to “restart his life back in India”.<\/p>\n
Ms Chin said Bhutra had been working in Singapore since 2011 and witnessed the reduction of salaries in the company by about 10 per cent during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
He also saw some of his colleagues being retrenched, said Ms Chin.<\/p>\n
During the pandemic, he stopped travelling for work altogether and began feeling anxious about job security and financial security, said the lawyer.<\/p>\n
She said Bhutra’s son began studying in Nanyang Technological University in 2021 but spent most of his time at home due to the pandemic, which led Bhutra to also worry about his son’s job prospects.<\/p>\n
In 2023, Bhutra’s son was diagnosed with major depressive disorder, and Bhutra’s own medical conditions of a neuropathic cough and iron deficiency anaemia exacerbated such that he took medication regularly.<\/p>\n
“The cumulative effect of the medication that Mr Bhutra was on, coupled with his son’s major depressive disorder, and his job uncertainty, led to the foolish commission of these offences,” said Ms Chin.<\/p>\n
She added that her client had approached the company’s human resources and line manager of his own accord to admit to his wrongdoing before the police were involved.<\/p>\n
He was suspended from Sep 25, 2025 and became unemployed from Dec 1, 2025.<\/p>\n
For cheating, he could have been jailed for up to three years, fined, or both. As his charge contained multiple instances, the maximum penalties were doubled.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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