SINGAPORE - A man who caused a total loss of almost $160,000 to his various victims was jailed for 32 months on Friday for forgery, cheating and criminal breach of trust.
Tang Koon Yeow, an undischarged bankrupt, was also fined $7,000 for managing a business without permission from the authorities in February 2006.
The 45-year-old, who faced a total of 21 charges, admitted to nine charges.
A district court heard that he forged the signature of Mr Pek Chen Feng in October 2007 to apply for credit cards from Bank of China and credit facilities from ABN Bank and OCBC Bank.
Mr Pek came to know Tang in 2007 when the latter helped him to sell his late father's Housing Board flat in Hougang.
During that period, Mr Pek had provided his Singpass password and copy of his identity card to Tang.
Tang then forged Mr Pek's signature and used his personal particulars on several credit card and credit facility application forms without his knowledge.
Tang had similarly forged the signature of Mr Pek's sister, Christina, for credit facilities at OCBC and ANZ in February and March 2011 respectively.
Ms Christina Pek had also given her Singpass password and her identity card details when she engaged him to buy a flat under her name and her mother's.
The siblings reported to the police separately when they received letters of demand for payment from banks.
When confronted, Tang admitted that he had applied for credit cards and facilities without their knowledge. He promised to repay them but soon became uncontactable.
The court also heard that Tang was entrusted with $29,500 by a house buyer, Ms Lim Wan Ching, 36, for a condominium unit in Yio Chu Kang in June 2011. He was then working at Dennis Wee Realty.
When the transaction fell through, instead of returning the money to Ms Lim, Tang misappropriated it.
In 2013, he cheated a Chinese national of $5,400 in rental deposit, and a dentist into handing over two months' rental deposit and a month advance rental fee totalling $12,600.
The victims had been deceived into believing that Tang owned a flat in Mandalay Road which he had advertised for rental.
Tang, who was made bankrupt in February 2006, did not make any restitution.
