Ex-property agent's victims lost $160k
Tang Koon Yeow, 45, was jailed for 32 months and fined $7,000.PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
Published 26 September 2015
Undischarged bankrupt jailed and fined for forgery, cheating and other offences
Elena Chong
Court Correspondent
A former property agent who caused his victims to lose a total of $160,000 was jailed for 32 months yesterday for multiple offences.
Tang Koon Yeow, 45, an undischarged bankrupt since Feb 10, 2006, was also fined $7,000 for managing JT Automobile, a used car business, without permission from the authorities between August and September 2013.
He faced a total of 21 charges, including cheating and forgery, and pleaded guilty to nine - five for forgery for the purpose of cheating; one for criminal breach of trust (CBT); two for cheating; and one under the Companies Act.
A district court heard that he forged the signature of a client, Mr Pek Chen Feng, 33, in October 2007 to apply for credit cards from the Bank of China and credit facilities from ABN Bank and OCBC Bank.
Mr Pek had provided his SingPass password and a copy of his identity card to Tang, who had handled the sale of Mr Pek's late father's Housing Board flat in Hougang that year.
Unknown to Mr Pek, Tang forged his signature and used his personal particulars, including his address, on several credit card and credit facility application forms.
Mr Pek lodged a police report on Feb 8, 2012 after having received letters of demand for payment from various banks.
Tang had also forged the signature of Mr Pek's younger sister Christina for credit facilities at OCBC and ANZ in February and March 2011 respectively.
She, too, had given him her SingPass password and her identity card details when she engaged him to buy an HDB flat under her name and that of her mother.
She made an electronic police report on Feb 3 , 2012 after banks sent her letters of demand for payment.
In another case, Tang misappropriated a down payment of $29,500 entrusted to him by Ms Lim Wan Ching, 36, for the purchase of a condominium in June 2011. The transaction fell through and he did not pay her back.
Two years later, he was involved in rental scams by deceiving two potential tenants into paying him $4,000 and $12,600 as rental payments for a flat off Moulmein Road which he did not own.
No restitution has been made by Tang, who has a conviction for promoting public entertainment without a licence.
