Woman forged nephew’s signature to get credit cards for transactions totalling nearly $25k

SINGAPORE – A woman who was staying at her nephew’s home forged his signature to obtain nine credit cards.

Between April and October 2015, Indonesian Yeyen Rahmayani used most of the cards for transactions involving nearly $25,000 in total. They included advance cash withdrawals and purchases.

Her offences came to light later that year when her Singaporean nephew, then 29, received letters from several banks asking him to settle outstanding credit card bills.

On March 28, the 45-year-old woman was sentenced to a year, seven months and two weeks’ jail.

She had pleaded guilty to four counts of cheating, three counts of theft and two counts of forgery.

Twenty other charges were considered during her sentencing. They included one count of failing to turn up in court without reasonable excuse in August 2020, after she was charged in 2019.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Claire Poh said that some time between 2014 and 2015, Yeyen wanted to start a restaurant business with a partner but lacked the funds to do so.

She decided to apply for credit cards from a bank but found out that she did not qualify as she was earning only around $900 a month.

Details about her occupation were not stated in court documents.

The court heard that although her nephew was close to her at the time, she knew he would not lend her any money to invest in the business.

Yeyen then hatched a plan to use her nephew’s details to apply for credit cards.

She told her nephew, who was then working as a driver, that she needed some documents from him to purportedly apply for a Housing Board flat.

She then asked him for a copy of his identity card, Central Provident Fund (CPF) statement and salary slip, and he complied.

Yeyen later applied for credit cards in his name, forging his signature on the application forms.

There were also times when she submitted copies of his identity card, CPF contribution form and salary slip to the banks which issued the credit cards.

The banks mailed the cards to the nephew’s home. Yeyen later retrieved the cards from a letterbox.

Among other things, she used the cards from two banks to buy pieces of jewellery worth more than $13,000 in total.

She also used the cards from another bank to make advance cash withdrawals of $11,550 from automated teller machines.

The DPP said: “She had also tried to make part repayments... through AXS machines amounting to $17,387.60.

“However, the total debt still owed to the banks... was $40,448.75 in late payments, interest, base amount owed and administration and legal fees.”

In 2015, the nephew started receiving letters from various banks, some of which requested payment for outstanding credit card bills.

Shocked, he told one of the banks that he had not made any credit card application.

DPP Poh told the court: “However, this was to no avail. Subsequently, (he) engaged a lawyer, who advised him to lodge a police report.”

The nephew eventually made the police report in November 2018. Investigations revealed Yeyen’s misdeeds.

Court documents did not disclose what happened next, but she was arrested at the Woodlands Checkpoint in July 2019 when she entered Singapore.

She was charged in October that year and was released on bail.

She later applied to leave Singapore between March 6 and 24, 2020, for “treatment and surgery” overseas.

On March 9, 2020, Yeyen left the country for an undisclosed location and failed to return here later that month.

She finally returned to Singapore in April 2024 and was arrested soon after.