Jail for man who absconded, then opened bank accounts using other people’s particulars

SINGAPORE – A man who was handed a jail sentence in December 2023 for offences including cheating failed to surrender himself at the State Courts the following month to begin serving it.

Instead, Myanmar national Phyo Thaw Khant reoffended by posing as other people to open multiple bank accounts, later used for transactions totalling more than $60,000.

Court documents did not disclose the source of the money, and the 28-year-old Singapore permanent resident was sentenced to nine months and five weeks’ jail on Jan 19.

He pleaded guilty to three counts of cheating by personation involving more than $39,600 in total, and an unrelated theft charge.

Fourteen other charges, including those linked to the remaining amount, were considered during his sentencing.

Without revealing details about his earlier offences, Deputy Public Prosecutor Ronnie Ang said that Phyo Thaw Khant was earlier sentenced to 10 months and 10 weeks’ jail on Dec 21, 2023.

The court allowed him to begin serving his sentence at a later date, and he was ordered to surrender himself to the authorities on Jan 11, 2024.

He absconded and was on the run the following month when he agreed to help some unknown people open bank accounts by using other individuals’ Singpass details.

After that, Phyo Thaw Khant had to hand over the accounts to these unknown people, the court heard.

The DPP told the court: “The Singpass details were provided by the unknown persons, which the accused then used to open the bank accounts online.

“During the registration process, the accused would allow his face to be captured as the photo for the purported account holder.”

In June 2024, a man became part of a cryptocurrency-related chat group on messaging platform Telegram and was asked to provide his Singpass details so that a “cryptocurrency investment account” could be set up for him.

He did as he was told, and two months later, Phyo Thaw Khant opened a corporate bank account linked to a company registered under the man’s name.

More than $13,500 later flowed through this account.

That same year, Phyo Thaw Khant opened two more bank accounts by using the Singpass details of two other men, and more than $26,000 flowed through them.

The bank later found 15 corporate accounts that were linked to 15 different people who were not the offender.

However, a photo of his face was captured during online registration for all of these accounts, said the DPP.

A bank representative then alerted the police in November 2024.

In an unrelated incident, Phyo Thaw Khant went to an apparel store at PLQ Mall in Paya Lebar Road on May 3, 2025, and stole items worth more than $185 in total.

They included two tops, a bag and a pair of shorts.

He returned to the same store two days later to shoplift again, but was caught and arrested soon after.

Police then went to his home and found the items that he had stolen earlier, but the store refused to accept them back as he had already worn them.