A MAN who used a fake credit card to make fraudulent purchases at Mustafa Centre was jailed for 48 months on Friday.
Malaysian machine programmer Chin Kin Chung, 28, pleaded guilty to having a forged credit card with intent to use it as genuine, and abetting Tan Soon Guan and others in a conspiracy to cheat the 24-hour store in Little India of $9,578 worth of jewellery on Oct 30 last year.
Tan has fled Singapore and remains at large.
A court heard that OCBC and United Overseas Bank discovered a series of transactions being made at Mustafa Centre using counterfeit credit cards on Oct 30. Three bank officers then made their way to Syed Alwi Road and saw Chin using the counterfeit credit card. Chin was arrested.
Investigation showed that Chin and Tan had entered the country a day before and used a fake Mastercard to buy two gold bars and jewellery at Mustafa's on Oct 30. They had earlier on Oct 12 used fake credit cards to cheat various establishments of jewellery, food and beverages amouting to almost $25,000. The total amount involved in Chin's 19 charges was $34,527.
Fifteen other similar charges were taken into consideration. Chin could have been jailed for up 10 years and fined on each of the four charges.
