4th Filipino jailed for cheating bank

[General Kala]

4th Filipino jailed for cheating bank
Posted: 22 March 2011 1509 hrs

SINGAPORE: A fourth Filipino was sentenced to jail on Tuesday for being part of a scam to cheat Standard Chartered bank.

Thirty-two-year-old Hazel Thea Puyaoan Vicente, who used to be a direct sales agent with telemarketing company, Touch & Tech, will be imprisoned for two years and three months.

Standard Chartered had engaged the firm to reach out to prospective customers of its unsecured credit facilities.

But to meet her monthly sales target, Vicente had forged her applicants' pay slips, inflating their salaries so that their annual pay would appear to meet the minimum income requirement laid down by the bank.

In some cases, she also doctored their letters of extension for employment as the bank will only approve applicants who have a minimum of one year validity remaining on their employment passes.

Based on court documents, her then-60-year-old Singaporean boss, Abdul Karim Baba was the one who had encouraged her to do so.

Between July and October 2009, Vicente managed to dupe the bank into giving out a total of S$411,000 in unsecured loans to 39 people.

She also earned a commission of more than S$3,800.

Vicente, who pleaded guilty to four of 39 counts of cheating, could have been jailed up to ten years and fined for each charge.

Besides her, three other Filipinos have already been convicted and sentenced earlier this year for taking part in the ruse.

They include one of her former colleagues, 26-year-old Charon Legaspi Dimpas, who will spend 45 months behind bars, and an applicant, 39-year-old Maria Theresa Arenas Garcia who was sentenced to six months' jail.

Abdul Karim, however, hasn't been dealt with yet.

- CNA/fa

 

[Kanetsugu Naoe]

Jun 24, 2011

Jail term for bank scam woman cut upon appeal

By Khushwant Singh

A Filipino woman had her 27-month jail sentence for forgery reduced by one-third upon appeal to the High Court on Friday. -- ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHANG

A FILIPINO woman had her 27-month jail sentence for forgery reduced by one-third upon appeal to the High Court on Friday.

Hazel Thea Puyaoan Vicente, 32, will now serve 1 1/2 years behind bars instead of two years and three months.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong had argued that the original sentence was 'entirely correct' as the district judge viewed Vicente as part of 'a highly organised criminal conspiracy' to cheat Standard Chartered bank.

Then, the lower court heard that in 2009, the bank had engaged telemarketing company, Touch & Tech to get prospective customers to take up its loans.

Vicente was then a direct sales agent with the firm and to meet her monthly sales target, she had forged her applicants' pay slips and inflated their salaries so as to meet the minimum income requirement set out by the bank.

In some cases, she also doctored their letters of extension for employment as the bank required a minimum of one year validity remaining on their employment passes.

Between July and October 2009, Vicente managed to dupe the bank into giving out a total of $411,000 in unsecured loans to 39 people - earning a commission of more than $3,800 for herself.

Defence counsel James Bahadur Masih said Vicente was merely an employee who was unable to recruit applicants until her then-boss, Abdul Karim Baba, 60, urged her to resort to forgery so that her applicants would be successful. Abdul Karim is claiming trial.