Fraudulent compensation claims exposed

Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — A committee for assessing damage caused by rain in Jeddah has detected a number of fraudulent claims especially with regard to damaged vehicles to benefit from aid allocated to flood victims. The committee has not forwarded these cases to the competent authorities yet. Okaz/Saudi Gazette learned that most applicants claim to have repaired their cars before submitting their claims to the committee. The committee discovered that some people had sprayed mud and dust on their vehicles, confirming fraud attempts. These incidents were officially recorded. In other cases it was revealed that vehicles were old and abandoned for long time and their registration validity had expired. Yet the owners claimed that the damage occurred due to the rain and when cars were examined it was discovered they were not damaged but old and were not being used. Fraudulent claims during the past few days reached 134 cases that were recorded. A number of real estate owners who had submitted applications for compensation were also excluded because there were construction flaws in the buildings, which allowed water to drip in through the ceiling during the rain. Claims submitted by large companies and institutions were exempted from compensation payments because those properties were insured against flood damage. The committee also rejected claims for compensation by companies operated without valid licenses and violators of safety regulations.