Agent says Collymore knew about multimillion-dollar insurance policies
AN insurance agent employed to Sagicor insisted on Wednesday that he had numerous meetings with murder accused Omar Collymore and his now-deceased wife Simone Campbell-collymore regarding multimillion-dollar insurance policies that were being taken out by the couple in late 2017, three months before her murder.
The agent took a defensive stance while under cross-examination by attorney-at-law Dianne Jobson in the murder trial of Collymore and his three co-accused — Michael Adams, Dwayne Pink, and Shaquilla Edwards — at the Home Circuit Court in Kingston.
Campbell-collymore and taxi driver Winston Walters were both shot dead on January 2, 2018 by two gunmen as the taxi waited to be let on to the apartment complex at Stanley Terrace, St Andrew, where Campbell-collymore lived with her husband.
Collymore is accused of ordering the hit on his wife while the other men are accused of conspiring to carry out the murder.
Jobson is representing Collymore in the trial.
It is alleged that Collymore had his eyes set on claiming the benefits from a life insurance policy belonging to his wife. The agent said Collymore would have been able to collect $80 million after Simone’s murder had Sagicor not investigated the matter and closed the policy. Collymore received no payout from his wife’s policy, according to the sales agent.
Jobson suggested to the witness that he never met with Collymore in any office to discuss insurance policies that were being taken out for him and his wife in 2017, but the insurance agent insisted that he met with the Collymores.
“It is not true that the only time I met with Mr Collymore was for him to sign. Both applicants were present when I filled in the application in their store downtown,” he said.
The Sagicor agent, answering questions posed by Jobson, explained that he could not recall the exact dates when he met with the couple to have them fill out the life insurance application forms. He told the court that there were times when the applicants did not have the necessary documents all at once and, as a result, he met up with them each time the forms were to be updated.
In the case of Collymore, the agent said he needed to retrieve medical information on an eye defect before his policy could be approved.
“There was an exclusive clause because of his eye. We even spoke about his medical which he had to retrieve from overseas. His policy was cancelled by the company in January 2018. On the system I couldn’t see the reason why it was cancelled, but the company had all right to look into the situation based on what happened to Simone,” he said.
The agent told the court that the beneficiaries on Simone’s life insurance portfolio, that was worth more than $100 million, were her two children and Collymore.
The children were entitled to 15 per cent each while Collymore was entitled to 70 per cent of the benefits. He was also listed as trustee for the children and their portion.
The trial continues today.