A MAN who duped two women into believing that he could get them laptops at discounted prices was jailed on Wednesday.
Louis Chua Hwee Kiat, 30, admitted to two counts of cheating and one charge of stealing his ex-girlfriend's mobile phone.
He was sentenced to a total of eight months' jail by District Judge Liew Thiam Leng, who took two other cheating charges into consideration during sentencing.
The court heard that after Malaysian Chiang Choon Yin, 26, came to know Chua on the Internet, they went out for coffee a few times. He learnt that she was looking for an Apple laptop.
On June 10, 2007 he deceived her into believing that he could order the laptop at a staff price of $3,192 for her, inducing her to hand over $3,200 to him.
Two months later, he similarly cheated Ms Teo Huini, 25, of $1,895 after making her believe that he could buy a laptop at that price. No restitution was made to either women.
In the theft case, the court heard that Chua came to know Ms Chen Jiaxin, 24, through friendster.com two months before she came to Singapore to study.
After Ms Chen came in November 2007, they met and dated but broke off about three months later. On Feb 21 last year, he appeared out of the blue while she was hailing a cab and insisted on following her.
Both got into the cab and he refused to leave. Feeling harassed and intimidated, she took out her cellphone to call the police and he grabbed it. He subsequently returned the $650 phone to her after she had made a police report.
Chua, who has previous convictions for theft and rioting, could have been jailed for up to one year and/or fined for cheating. For theft, he could have been jailed for up to three years and/or fined.
