Fraud Charges Filed After 3 Hole-in-Ones

“Hey, I got a hole-in-one...”

Used car salesman Kim (40 from Mokpo in Jeonnam) played golf last July with Han (39) and three others at a golf course in Jeonnam.

After hitting his second shot at the third hole, Kim, who had enrolled in S insurance company’s “golf insurance,” a congratulatory prize for a hole-in-one, intentionally hit the ball towards the next par-3 hole. Kim claimed to look for his ball, but he secretly went over to the next hole and placed his ball into the cup.

After moving on to the next hole with his group, as soon as the caddy went to get someone else’s club, he sailed the ball into the woods on purpose, at which point Han and the others exclaimed, “Good shot!” When they went to the green to putt, one of the members of the group yelled, “It’s a hole-in-one!” and the caddy was easily fooled.

After the game was over, Kim went to the tournament officials and received a “Hole-in-One Verification Certificate,” which he turned in to the S Insurance company to receive an insurance payment of 3,000,000 won.

They also asked the caddy to get them a cell phone in order to buy time to slip the ball secretly into the cup.

Kim and his four friends, who ruined honest golf with their scam, had all paid 25,000 won per month totaling about 250,000 won over the year to cover the insurance premium, and received somewhere between 2,000,000 to 8,000,000 won from the insurance company through their golf sham. Starting in March 2003 until last year, the group had raked in over 60,000,000 won from three different insurance companies for six different scams.

The police from southern Gwangju have applied for arrest warrants on nine charges against Kim and two other men, with similar plans for Han and the other two men.

The men also abused a clause in the insurance contract to receive a 60,000,000 won payment through a scam in which they claimed they were in a car accident on the way to the golf course.

The group was caught when their insurance company became suspicious of their ability to obtain three hole-in-ones, when even one is nearly impossible to get in an average person’s lifetime.

Seung-Ho Jung shjung@donga.com