SINGAPORE - Sentencing for the first man who had admitted to his role in OCBC phishing scams involving about $12.8 million has been adjourned to next Tuesday (July 5) after he said he was unwell and has been issued a medical certificate.

Leong Jun Xian, 21, who pleaded guilty on April 20 to a charge under the Organised Crime Act as well as two counts each of dealing with the benefits of criminal conduct and rioting, was initially expected to be sentenced on Thursday.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Jason Chua, however, noted that Leong's MC did not excuse him from attending court proceedings.

On Thursday, defence lawyer Audrey Koo said that Leong, who is now out on bail of $45,000, had told her on Wednesday night that he had been hospitalised.

She told District Judge Kessler Soh that her client's bailor also told her that Leong had a high fever.

DPP Chua then replied that there was no mention in the documents tendered whether the offender has been tested for Covid-19.

After hearing both sides, Judge Soh said he was prepared to give Leong the benefit of the doubt and adjourned the sentencing to next week.

In earlier proceedings, the court heard that Leong had been assessed to be unsuitable to be given probation for his offences.

He was, instead, recommended to undergo reformative training.

DPP Lee Wei Liang did not disclose the reasons behind the recommendation that Leong be given such a sentence.

Offenders given reformative training will be detained in a centre and made to follow a strict regimen that can include foot drills and counselling.

Leong and six other young people were charged in February over their alleged involvement in the scams. Their cases are pending.

They include Brayden Cheng Ming Yan, 19, Jovan Soh Jun Yan, 20, Muhammad Khairuddin Eskandariah, 20, and Lim Kai Ze, 21.

Two others cannot be named as they were below the age of 18 when they allegedly committed some offences.

Between Dec 8 last year and Jan 19 this year, the police received 768 reports from OCBC bank account holders who had fallen prey to phishing scams perpetrated by unknown scammers.

The victims reported that their bank accounts had been compromised and funds were transferred out without authorisation. The court heard that they suffered losses of about $12.8 million in total.

Court documents showed that Leong and other young people, including Lim, Soh, Khairuddin and Cheng, had worked together as a group to provide money laundering services to various unknown people believed to be linked to overseas syndicates.

Leong and the others allegedly sourced for and provided control of bank accounts to these unknown people.

Some of these bank accounts were later used to receive and dissipate funds from OCBC customers who fell prey to the scams.

Other accounts were used to receive and dissipate funds from victims of separate scams.

The syndicates are said to have instructed the young people to withdraw cash from automated teller machines, communicating with them through three different chat groups on messaging platform Telegram.

The chat groups are known as K2, G5 and one identified by an emoji of a Singapore flag.

The young people worked with "William" - also known as "Huang Fei Hong"- in K2, "Huang Da Ge" in G5 and "Terry" in the Singapore flag group, the court heard. They allegedly used a fourth Telegram chat group, called "Mobile Legends", to communicate among themselves.

Leong was a member of all four chat groups. He also had his own agents working under him to source for bank accounts, which would be provided to the syndicates.

William had promised him a salary of $3,000 a month, with an additional $600 to $800 per bank account provided.

The DPPs said that between December last year and this February, at least 16 bank accounts were allegedly provided to the syndicates in the Telegram chat groups, with Leong providing 12 of them.

These 16 bank accounts were then used to receive nearly $600,000 from victims of various scams.

OCBC said in January that it had made full goodwill payouts to all victims of the scams.

Its chief executive Helen Wong had also said that this was a one-off payout made because of the speed at which the scams unfolded and other circumstances leading to it.

In February, OCBC introduced a "kill switch" that lets customers freeze their bank accounts if they suspect that they have been scammed or believe key account-related details have been compromised.

Separately, Leong had also admitted in April that he was a secret society member who was involved in two rioting incidents - at Oriental Plaza mall in New Bridge Road on Nov 20, 2020, and at the void deck of Block 422 Bedok North Road on Jan 10 last year.

For each count of dealing with the benefits of criminal conduct, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined up to $500,000.

For rioting, an offender can be jailed for up to seven years and caned for each charge.