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Man jailed for teaming up with married lover to cheat his parents, sister of S$150,000
- Lai Sze Yin began dating a woman who was 19 years older than him
- She purportedly instigated him to cheat his family members to fund her business
- His lies included needing to pay off his university fees and his car loan
- His parents asked for leniency in court for him, saying the woman had exploited and manipulated him
He told his parents that he needed a loan to buy a car and pay for his university fees, among other lies.
They handed over their life savings and he also cheated his younger sister, with the three of them giving him about S$150,000 in total.
For his actions, Lai, now aged 28, was jailed for one year and three months on Monday (June 7).
He earlier pleaded guilty to four counts of cheating, with another five charges taken into consideration for sentencing. He will begin serving his sentence in a week as his lawyer said that he has been unwell since last Friday.
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His lover — Joceyln Kwek Sok Koon, now 47 — has been charged and her trial is slated to begin next month.
The court heard that the Singaporean couple met in July 2016 when Lai delivered a parcel to her home. She was selling bags at the time, while he had just completed serving his National Service.
They exchanged contact details and talked over messaging application WhatsApp, and Kwek later hired him for his delivery services.
Their friendship turned into a romantic relationship despite Lai knowing that Kwek was married with two children.
Lai lied to his parents about who he was dating, referring to Kwek as “Rachel Lam'' instead. He told them that she was his age and studied at the National University of Singapore.
Save for speaking to Kwek over the phone, Lai’s parents never met her in person.
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FATHER HANDED OVER $80,000 IN TWO DAYS
In March 2017, the couple plotted to tell Lai's father that Lai needed a loan of S$5,778 to pay for his fees at the Singapore Institute of Management University, which has since been renamed the Singapore University of Social Sciences.
When Lai’s father transferred the money to him, Lai gave some of it to Kwek.
About two months later, Kwek allegedly told Lai that she needed about S$8,000 to fund her bag business.
They then came up with a plan to ask his parents for a loan to buy a car.
His mother, now aged 57, then gave him S$9,000, which he again handed over to Kwek.
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Kwek then allegedly instigated Lai to cheat his sister — who is three years his junior — by telling her that she could earn an interest rate of 30 per cent on monies she deposited into his bank account.
Lai’s sister gave him S$1,000 in cash for this purpose, which he handed to Kwek.
In October 2017, Kwek again purportedly instigated Lai to lie to his father about an investment opportunity with United Overseas Bank, which would allow the older man to earn 21 per cent interest on his deposit.
Lai’s father transferred S$80,000 in total over two days to his son.
Lai then transferred most of this to Kwek’s daughter’s bank account. Kwek allegedly told him to use the remaining S$3,000 to repay a loan he had gotten for her.
Court documents did not reveal how the offences came to light.
MADE PARTIAL RESTITUTION
In sentencing Lai, Principal District Judge Victor Yeo noted that Lai showed remorse by repaying his parents S$22,500 and returning S$1,000 to his sister.
“It is also evident that his parents have forgiven him. (He has) since realised his foolishness and wrongdoing, and his parents have pleaded for a lenient sentence on his behalf as he was also a victim who was manipulated and exploited by (Kwek),” the judge told the court.
Lai has also promised to “work extremely hard” as a delivery driver to “return all their life savings” and he did not personally benefit financially from his actions, District Judge Yeo noted.
However, the judge added that Lai had betrayed the trust of his closest family members and committed serious crimes. He took into account that Lai was in remand for five weeks before his family bailed him out.
Lai was represented by Mr Anthony Wong from law firm Lee & Lee.
He could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined for each cheating charge.
