SINGAPORE - A cleaning supervisor cheated four Malaysian workers of a total of $2,610 after making them believe that he could get them jobs at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH).
Mohamed Sum Sadri, 47, who faced one charge of theft and 14 counts of cheating, had admitted to five charges including theft. On Wednesday (Jan 27), he was sentenced to eight years' preventive detention, which is for hard-core criminals and has no remission for good behaviour.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Tow Chew Chi had told the court that on July 25 last year, Mohamed Sum deceived his worker, Mr Azman Kasim, into believing that he was able to get a job for him.
He claimed that his sister was working at KTPH. He asked Mr Azman if he was interested to work as a storekeeper there, and that the salary was around $1,950.
When Mr Azman said he was, Mohamed Sum claimed that Mr Azman had to pay him $450 within a week for administrative matters, hostel fees, an S-pass application and a security pass. He said the payment was needed so that he could speed up Mr Azman's job application. Mr Azman paid him $450.
After Mr Azman was deceived, he asked Mohamed Sum if the job offer could be extended to his friend, Malaysian Hisham Ahmad, who was similarly cheated of $450 on July 31.
Mohamed Sum also cheated another worker, Ms Hamidah Yusoff, who had complained to him that she was lowly paid in her current job.
On June 25, he lied to her that he could get her a new job at KTPH. He claimed that she had to pay him some money for the job application. She gave him $450.
He continued to deceive her to deliver various sums of money to advance her fictitious job application. She paid him another sum of $300.
The fourth victim was not mentioned in court.
DPP Tow said Mohamed Sum vanished shortly after taking the victims' money.
After waiting in vain for their new jobs, the victims went to KTPH and found out that there were no such job offers. They then reported to the police.
He also admitted to stealing $575 from the cash register of Men Don Tei, an open concept restaurant, at Westgate, Gateway Drive in Jurong East, on Aug 10 last year.
Mohamed Sum had previous convictions for cheating in 1997, 2000 and loanshark harassment in 2010. He was given nine years' preventive detention and 12 strokes in 2000. There is no remission for good behaviour for such detention, which can be up to 20 years.
