I've had similar issues when using DBD::ODBC. I fixed it by switching to DBD::ADO: 
# for ADO usage
use DBI;
use Win32::OLE;
Win32::OLE->Option( CP => Win32::OLE::CP_UTF8 );

my $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:ADO:Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data 
+Source=some.mdb', '','', {LongReadLen=>100000} );

[download]
See the DBD::ADO documentation for more details, usage, and limitations.

In reply to Re: Unicode insert into mssql from perl DBD by rhesa
in thread Unicode insert into mssql from perl DBD by Anonymous Monk

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