(Yicai Global) June 12 -- The ongoing police investigation regarding one Chinese person's significant financial gain by choosing flights that are likely to be delayed could result in no charges, according to legal experts.

As long as the passenger purchased travel insurance by using their real name, the contract is valid, lawyer Deng Xueping told Yicai Global. And even if the personal information on the tickets would be fake, it would be a civil dispute, not a criminal offense, he added.

On June 9, Nanjing police said that an insurance company had reported a case to the eastern law enforcement bureau in April about a woman who had been compensated as much as CNY3 million (USD423,600) for rescheduled flights.

The woman, who had years of experience in the aviation sector, had deliberately chosen nearly 900 flights that were likely to be postponed over the past five years. She had used relatives' and friends' bank card information to purchase some of the trips and insurance coverage.

In recent years, China's increasing passenger traffic has caused less punctual flight schedules while insurers nowadays often handle claims via automatic online programs, said an insurance professional. Risk management of those systems needs to be improved, the person added.

"Li [the suspect] exploited loopholes in the system to make a profit," said Deng. Insurers should improve the rules to avoid such situations, he added. Otherwise, they need to go to court to try to invalidate the contract, according to the lawyer.

But insurers may have a card up their sleeves. Whether the policyholder took the flight or not is crucial as it determines whether losses occurred, a professor who specializes in insurance law told Yicai Global.

In 2018, another somewhat similar case was ruled to constitute fraud, according to public court data. Two people had repeatedly filed insurance claims, pocketing CNY227,200 (USD32,092), while using other persons' names. They were sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

Editor: Dou Shicong, Emmi Laine