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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.
Gas station attendant Tan Soy Kiang, who has a mild intellectual disability, believed his lies and did as he was told even though he earned between $ 700 and $ 1,300 a month.
The court previously heard that the defendant had cheated Mr. Tan, now 76, of at least $ 130,000 in total.
The con artist was sentenced yesterday to two years and three months in jail after District Judge Terence Tay convicted her of 169 counts of cheating in July.
The court heard that Tan began working as a gas pump attendant in 1992.
Tan and Tan had a mutual friend, 71-year-old former cleaner Boo Sok Hiang, also known as Ah Hiang.
In their presentations, Assistant District Attorney Thiam Jia Min said that Tan and Madam Boo had been friends for almost 30 years. She introduced him to Tan around May 1999.
Later, Tan claimed that he needed money for Mr. Lee. On May 11 of that year, Mr. Tan withdrew all of his CPF savings in 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. “
Using similar lies, Tan also managed to convince Mr. Tan to hand over at least $ 500 of his salary each month.
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 she made money from her work and did not seem to have any expenses on foot.
Madame Lim learned from her mother that her uncle had withdrawn all of his money from CPF when he turned 55 and the entire sum was gone. Madame Lim and her husband later checked with Mr. Tan, the court heard.
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 that he needed the money to gamble.
Yesterday, the court heard that Tan will appeal against his conviction and sentence. Her bail has been set at $ 20,000.
ADDITIONAL REPORTS: DOMINIC LOW
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