Man jailed for cheating 'godma' of $125,000 with fake Rolex and family crisis ruse

SINGAPORE - Taking advantage of his victim's kindness, a self-employed man lied to his "godma", claiming to have a tragic family history, and duped the elderly woman into handing over $125,000 in total.

Malaysian Chin Kok Hin, 46, was jailed for two years and three months on Wednesday (Feb 20) after pleading guilty to three counts of cheating involving $105,000.

Two other cheating charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

One of them was linked to his godma, Ms Teo Sue Lin, 71, and it involved another $20,000.

The other involved a second woman identified as Ms Chan Lai Fong, who was cheated of $15,000.

The court heard that Ms Teo gambled frequently at the Resorts World Sentosa casino and first met Chin early last year. He was also a gambler there, the court heard.

The pair met each other at the casino nearly every day and soon became close.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Alexandria Shamini Joseph said they began to refer to each other as "godma" and "godson".

In April last year, Chin told Ms Teo that he would be giving her five Rolex watches for safekeeping, and claimed that an Indonesian buyer wanted to purchase them.

However, the watches were fake and there was no such buyer.

The DPP added: "He informed her that the Indonesian buyer would be in Singapore about twice a month. In return, he asked the victim to give him $50,000 as security and the victim agreed."

Chin also told Ms Teo last April that his sister needed "medical treatment".

DPP Joseph told the court: "The victim felt sorry for the accused because of his tragic family circumstances.

"Believing that he needed money to pay for his sister's medical treatment, the victim handed a sum of $30,000 to the accused as a loan."

The next day, Chin phoned Ms Teo, claiming that his sister had died. The elderly woman then handed him $25,000 as a loan for the "funeral expenses".

When Ms Teo asked Chin when the Indonesian would be arriving, he would make excuses, claiming that the watch buyer was unavailable.

Chin also made numerous excuses when she asked him to repay the loans.

These excuses eventually aroused Ms Teo's suspicions.

On May 22 last year, she took the watches to a shop to verify their authenticity and made a police report when told that they were fake.

Defence lawyer Christine Liu, who was assigned to the case under the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme, pleaded for a jail term of between 20 and 22 months.

She said Chin was "an opportunist whose ruses, played on a single victim, were utterly non-sophisticated".

He has made no restitution.