Surrey Hills Holdings founder Pang Gek Teng charged after allegedly cheating woman of over $400k
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Pang Gek Teng was also charged on May 29 with one count of criminal breach of trust involving over $240,000, as well as one count each of attempted cheating and forgery.
PHOTO: ST FILE
SINGAPORE – The founder of Surrey Hills Holdings – best known for its Surrey Hills Grocer cafe chain – has been charged with multiple counts of cheating after she allegedly duped a woman into handing her more than $400,000.
Pang Gek Teng, 37, who is no longer the chief executive of the company, was also charged on May 29 with one count of criminal breach of trust involving more than $240,000, as well as one count each of attempted cheating and forgery.
She now faces 12 charges in total.
Pang, a Singaporean, allegedly duped a woman into handing her more than $400,000 in total over eight occasions between 2018 and 2019.
Among other things, Pang is accused of cheating the woman of the largest amount on Jan 4, 2019, by pretending to be two people known as “Desmond” and “Derrick”.
She is said to have assumed the identities of such characters to dupe the woman into believing that a private investigator had reported seeing the woman’s husband at a bank branch in Serangoon Garden, asking about her account.
Pang allegedly claimed that the money was at risk of being frozen, and was to be transferred to “Derrick” for “safekeeping”.
The woman is then said to have delivered $191,700 to Pang via a bank transfer.
From April 3, 2023, to Feb 28, 2024, Pang allegedly committed criminal breach of trust involving more than $240,000 when she was a key executive officer at Surrey Hills Holdings.
She is also accused of attempting to cheat a second woman on two occasions from December 2023 to February 2024.
Pang allegedly tried to cheat this woman by deceiving her into believing that real estate agency Orchard Turn Developments had made three bulk orders of hampers to Surrey Hills Holdings valued at more than $800,000.
Pang is also accused of committing forgery in January 2025 by amending an electronic invoice of a consulting firm, and allegedly used it to cheat this woman. The woman purportedly delivered $20,000 to Pang via a bank transfer.
Pang is accused of cheating a third woman in March 2024 by communicating to her via WhatsApp and pretending to be the chief executive of Orchard Turn Developments.
Pang’s case will be mentioned again in court on July 10.
For each count of cheating, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.
Surrey Hills Holdings terminated Pang’s employment on March 26, 2025, following the discovery of “alleged financial misconduct”. It also started legal proceedings against her.
Pang had started her career in an events company before enrolling in PSB Academy in Singapore, where she earned a degree in management and marketing.
After working in a bank in Singapore, she pivoted to business, but her ideas – which included a home-delivery service in Australia – failed to take off.
In 2021, she returned to Singapore with A$362 (S$330) in her pocket and started Surrey Hills Grocer with a $400,000 investment from a family friend.
It made its debut in Joo Koon in December that year.
