SINGAPORE - A man pocketed $15,000 he received from a Chinese national after claiming that he could help him apply for permanent residency in Singapore.
On Monday (Aug 28), Kelvin Ng Zhi Wei, 31, was jailed for 10 months for misappropriating Mr Hu Qing Ming's money and two other offences - misappropriating $13,673 belonging to businessmanTing Yee Wah, 54; and cheating businesswoman Esther Lee Poh Ying, 47, of $8,480.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Randeep Singh Koonar said that Ng was working as a business solution consultant at O.E. Consultant in 2014 when he completed an assignment to design a webpage for Ms Lee's pizza business.
After the job was completed, Ng represented to Ms Lee that O.E. Consultants could also supply her with a point-of-systems system and CCTV cameras which he knew was false.
Ms Lee then issued him two cheques for $4,200 and $4,280 for the items. Ng subsequently cashed the two cheques and used the money for his personal expenses. Full restitution has been made
His employment was terminated in July that year.
Some three months later, he set up Shine Source Consultancy as a sole proprietorship to provide general administrative services, including helping individuals make work pass and permanent residency (PR) applications.
DPP Singh said Shine did "business'' from October 2014 to July 2015, after which Ng fled Singapore to avoid apprehension for his offences.
He told the court during this time, Shine's account balance never exceeded $3,000 and hovered at close to zero on most days.
Ng deceived Mr Hu, a sales consultant, into transferring two sums of $2,500 to his bank account to handle his PR application in December 2014.
He lied to the victim that the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority required proof of payment for the application. He knew Mr Hu had not kept a receipt for the first transfer and he was confident of deceiving him into delivering another $2,500 to him.
When the two met sometime before Dec 29 that year, Ng advised Mr Hu to set up a fixed deposit account to improve the chances of his PR application being approved. Ng told Mr Hu that he could transfer $10,000 to the Shine account in batches, which he said he would deposit in the fixed deposit account once the full amount was received.
Ng further cheated Mr Hu of another $10,000 in January 2015 to boost his chances of his PR application being approved.
On five occasions between Dec 29, 2014 and April 1, 2015, Mr Hu transferred a total of $15,000 to the Shine account. Ng never opened a fixed deposit account for Mr Hu but misappropriated the money for his own use.
He has returned $7,000 to Mr Hu in four separate payments. The source of themoney is unknown, said the DPP.
Ng was arrested at Changi Airport on Oct 12, 2016 after his return from Vietnam.
Two other criminal breach of trust charges were taken into consideration.
Ng, who had a previous conviction for CBT, could have been jailed for up to seven years and/or fined for each charge of CBT; and up to three years and/or fined for cheating.
