Woman helped syndicate make purchases with stolen credit cards
AsiaOne
Thursday, Jun 14, 2012
A woman who joined a syndicate stealing credit cards to make purchases has been sentenced to four and a half years in jail.
Yee Kwee Lan, an unemployed woman, faced the court on 35 charges and was found guilty on eight charges of conspiring to cheat.
The 44-year-old Singapore permanent resident was found guilty of making purchases of up to $21,700 on credit cards stolen from the mail.
According to The Straits Times (ST), the syndicate had stolen the credit cards from postal mail sent out by various banks to its clients in Singapore.
The paper also reported that the woman had earlier owed loansharks a total of RM20,000 ($8,058).
She had approached a friend, known only as Ng, to borrow money so she could repay her debts. Ng then recommended her a job at the syndicate.
Yee was promised a 5 per cent commission from the total price of goods purchased and offered $200 for food and lodging.
As part of her job, Yee used credit cards handed to her by an accomplice to buy specific items, mainly gold jewellery.
It appears that the accomplice was in charge of driving her around during the purchasing trips, and even prepared a number of fake identity cards for her.
Yee was arrested at a jewellery store on New Bridge Road, less than a month after she had started working for the syndicate.
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