Over 6 years’ jail for serial conman who cheated 2 companies of more than $920k in total

SINGAPORE – A serial conman, who was working for two food and beverage firms, cheated them of more than $920,000 in total over seven years from January 2006 to February 2013.

Chan Chee Hung was working for the Soup Restaurant Group and its wholly-owned subsidiary Sure Food at the time. He is no longer working at these firms.

To commit the offences, Chan had asked his family members including his wife and father to register three other firms known as LSC Supplies, Prospac Trading and Uni-Vac Food Trading.

Among other things, Soup Restaurant’s chief financial officer (CFO) had stated that Chan forged delivery orders and invoices, which were purportedly for the purchase of items from Prospac, Uni-Vac or LSC.

Soup Restaurant and Sure Food then paid these three firms, but none of the goods stated in the forged invoices were delivered.

On Friday, Chan, 51, was sentenced to six years and nine months’ jail after he pleaded guilty to seven charges, including multiple counts of cheating involving more than $540,000.

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

Chan started working at Soup Restaurant in September 2002 and became a senior manager in charge of its central kitchen in May 2006.

He later became a senior manager in charge of Sure Food in 2011. Deputy Public Prosecutor Louis Ngia said that Chan’s duties included overseeing the sourcing and procurement of supplies.

Chan had asked his wife to register Uni-Vac as a sole proprietorship under her name, even though he would be the sole person controlling it.

DPP Ngia told the court: “(Chan) created the... facade because he intended for Uni-Vac to sell goods to the central kitchen of the Soup Restaurant.

“He knew he would be in a conflict of interest in making the said business arrangement, as he was in charge of making the relevant procurement decisions for Soup Restaurant.”

Despite this, he kept this conflict hidden from Soup Restaurant so that he could continue making profits.

Chan later realised that kitchen goods were considered as “disposables” and their inventories were not audited. In 2005, he decided to make use of his position in Soup Restaurant and order kitchen goods from Uni-Vac.

But the orders would be fake, as Uni-Vac would not be supplying Soup Restaurant with any goods.

Chan also created corresponding fictitious invoices bearing Uni-Vac’s letterhead.

He would then forge his subordinates’ signatures on the invoices to make it look as though they had ordered and received the goods.

To further his scheme, Chan asked his father to register Prospac in 2005 and instructed his mother-in-law to register LSC three years later.

All three firms were then used to cheat Soup Restaurant and Sure Food.

Chan’s offences came to light when Soup Restaurant’s CFO alerted the police In June 2013. Despite this, Chan went on to commit other offences.

Over 10 occasions between January and March 2022, he targeted multiple unlocked parked vehicles and stole from them cash cards worth more than $600 in all.

On Friday, the DPP urged the court to sentence Chan to up to seven years and six months’ jail, adding: “No restitution had been made except $10,000.

“This is miniscule, compared to the losses suffered by (Soup Restaurant and Sure Food) of more than $920,000.”

For each count of cheating, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.