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SINGAPORE – In need of cash, an avid gambler convinced her friend to withdraw all of her Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings of more than $ 53,000 in 1999 and hand over at least $ 500 of her salary every month from 2000 to 2013.
Dishwasher Tan Hwee Ngo, now 71, claimed the money was for the late founding Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew.
Tan Soy Kiang, a gas pump attendant, who has a mild intellectual disability, believed his lies and did what he was told even though he only earned between $ 700 and $ 1,300 a month.
The court had previously heard that Tan cheated Mr. Tan, now 76, of at least $ 130,000 in total.
The con artist was sentenced Monday (August 31) to two years and three months in jail after District Judge Terence Tay convicted her of 169 counts of cheating in July following a trial.
The judge had said Tan was “shameless in using her age as a sword and shield to impose baseless charges on investigating officers and portray herself as an hapless victim.”
The court heard that Tan began working as a gas pump attendant in 1992.
There were also periods when he had two jobs, as a cleaner or a laborer, in addition to working at the gas kiosk.
Tan and Tan had a mutual friend, 71-year-old former cleaner Boo Sok Hiang, also known as Ah Hiang.
In their presentations, Deputy Prosecutor Thiam Jia Min said that Tan and Madam Boo had been friends for nearly 30 years after meeting while watching Teochew’s operas. She introduced him to Tan around May 1999, the court heard.
Later, Tan claimed that he needed money for Mr. Lee.
On May 11 of that year, Mr. Tan visited a CPF service center and filled out a request form to withdraw all of his CPF savings into the Ordinary Account.
Then more than $ 53,000 was credited to his bank account the following month.
The DPP added: “Mr. Tan sought the help of Ah Hiang to withdraw the CPF money from his … bank account and pass it on to the defendants. Consequently, Tan entrusted Ah Hiang with his ATM card and his personal identification number to make withdrawals.
“Mr. Tan had requested Ah Hiang’s help as he was busy with work and did not have time to do withdrawals.”
Madam Boo then told Mr. Tan that she withdrew the money and passed it on to Tan.
“Mr. Tan further confirmed that to date, he never recovered any of the CPF savings he had withdrawn in 1999,” the prosecutor said.
Using similar lies, Tan also managed to convince Mr. Tan to hand over at least $ 500 of his salary each month.
Mr. Tan passed the money on to Madam Boo, who would then deliver a “substantial portion” to Tan.
In 2013, Tan moved in with her niece, Madame Pamela Lim, and her husband.
The couple then noticed that Mr. Tan borrowed money from them and Madame Lim’s mother almost every week.
This struck them as peculiar, since he made money from his jobs and did not seem to have any expenses on foot.
Madam Lim also learned from her mother that her uncle had withdrawn all the money from CPF when he turned 55 and that the entire sum was gone.
Madame Lim and her husband then consulted with Mr. Tan, the court heard.
“Mr Tan explained that the defendant and Ah Hiang told him something about a failed business investment involving Yeo Hiap Seng, which was taken over by the government, so that now he needed to make refunds to ‘Lao Lee,'” DPP said . in a reference to Mr. Lee.
Madam Lim filed a police report on February 3, 2014.
During the trial, Tan attempted to put the blame on Madam Boo, who had died of heart disease on April 21, 2016, before the trial began.
But the DPP noted that in an earlier police statement, Tan admitted that he had misled Mr. Tan.
He also admitted in the statement that he needed the money to gamble.
On Monday, the court heard that Tan will appeal his conviction and sentence. Her bail has been set at $ 20,000.
For each count of cheating, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.
Additional information from Dominic Low
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