Foreign talent's contributions to Singapore

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Jail for man who kept scamming victims even while out on bail​

Tan Kai Wen, 24, ran a series of renovation and rental scams, cheating almost 70 people of about $78,000. PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO

David Sun
Crime Correspondent

Jun 13, 2024

SINGAPORE – A man ran a series of renovation and rental scams, cheating almost 70 people of about $78,000 which he then used for personal expenses like a hotel stay and alcohol.
Tan Kai Wen, 24, had been arrested and released on bail three times, but kept scamming victims until he was finally kept in remand.
On June 11, he was jailed for 28 months after he pleaded guilty to four cheating charges. Another eight cheating charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.
The court heard that he has used up all the money he cheated people of and has made no restitution.
Tan, a Malaysian, was previously working as a salesman at a renovation company here in late 2021.
He was facing financial difficulties at the time, and came up with a plan to cheat clients by having them make payments to his bank account instead of the company’s, for tabletops and other renovation work.
Tan began cheating clients from November 2021, getting four of them to transfer more than $11,000 in total to him.

The ruse involved excuses such as the company’s account being closed on Saturdays and that he was able to offer discounts.
Police reports were made against Tan, and he was arrested on July 18, 2022, before being charged in court a week later and released on bail.
But he continued with his cheating spree, tricking 14 victims of another $16,300 through renovation scams up till January 2023.

During that time, Tan had been arrested again twice on Nov 13, 2022, and Jan 20, 2023, and released on bail each time.
The renovation company had lodged a police report against him in August 2022, but he then created a Carousell account to continue running the scams.
Tan failed to turn up in court for a hearing on Jan 25, 2023, and a warrant of arrest was issued against him.
While on the run, he switched up his scam type, cheating a total of 49 victims of about $51,000 in a series of rental scams on Facebook using multiple identities.
Tan’s crime spree came to an end after he was arrested on March 15, 2023, and kept in remand.

The prosecution said that by then, there were a total of 68 victims, of which 49 were foreigners working in Singapore who were looking for accommodation.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Santhra Aiyyasamy said Tan had a complete disregard for the law, law enforcement authorities and the court, having committed the spate of offences while out on bail and on the run.
Tan’s sentence was backdated to March 15, 2023, from when he had been in remand.
For each count of cheating, he could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

 

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Man jailed for avoiding payment to six dental clinics under guise of toilet break​

Andrew Wong

Jun 13, 2024

SINGAPORE – On seven separate occasions, a man visited six different dental clinics to undergo procedures, including X-rays and root canal treatments.
After every procedure, he would make off without paying by excusing himself to go to a toilet located outside the clinic.
On June 12, Ryosuke Tanaka, 36, pleaded guilty to three charges of cheating amounting to just over $4,780 and was sentenced to five months’ jail.
His lawyer Noelle Teoh, from Gloria James-Civetta & Co, had argued that there was no degree of planning or sophistication when he committed the offences, as his request to go to the washroom could have been easily rejected by the clinics.
During sentencing, Principal District Judge Jill Tan said that while Tanaka’s methods were not sophisticated, they were still premeditated.
Four other similar charges were taken into consideration.
The court heard that from 2020 to 2022, he had employed the same method at three different clinics to receive tooth extractions, X-rays and consultations worth a total of $2,222.55.

In his mitigation plea, Ms Teoh said Tanaka had intended to leave without making payment, as he believed he would receive the invoices in the mail.
Tanaka, who is self-employed, had made full restitution of $7,004.38 to all the clinics involved, including the three clinics in the charges taken into consideration for sentencing, she added.
In response, Deputy Public Prosecutor Cheronne Lim, who was seeking five to seven months jail, said most of the procedures that Tanaka went for were not straightforward services like regular cleaning.
He had undergone procedures including root canal and dental crown treatment, which were “almost semi-surgical” procedures, said the DPP.
For each count of cheating, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

 

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Fine for man who squirted mixture of urine and flour on woman’s dress to try to chat her up​

Tan Jun Hao, a 31-year-old Malaysian, was fined $1,200 after he pleaded guilty to using criminal force on the woman. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Jun 20, 2024

SINGAPORE - Wanting to talk to women, a man hatched a plan to soil their clothes with a mixture of his urine and flour so that he could have an opportunity to break the ice between them and him.
On June 20, Tan Jun Hao, a 31-year-old Malaysian, was fined $1,200 after he pleaded guilty to using criminal force on one of the women.
He followed a 26-year-old woman as she was going up an escalator from Nicoll Highway MRT station at around 8.30pm on April 9.
He then squirted the mixture, which he had earlier mixed in a small plastic bottle, on her dress as she was walking along a nearby overhead bridge.
Instead of stopping to talk to the woman after that, he walked past her.
She initially thought that the mixture was bird droppings due to its smell, and the stain grew bigger when she tried to wipe it off with tissue paper.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Yap Jia Jun said: “The accused intended to squirt the mixture on the clothes of ladies, especially young ladies wearing dark-coloured bottoms, and then alert them that their clothes had been dirtied.

“He wanted to create opportunities for him to talk to these ladies.”
Tan admitted that he had done the same to two other unknown victims.
“He had also prepared red dye at home, which he intended to mix into the liquid,” said the prosecutor.
Court documents did not state how the authorities managed to track Tan down before he was caught.

 

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Jail for man who molested teen passenger while providing illegal carpooling service​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Jul 04, 2024

SINGAPORE – A man who provided an illegal carpooling service in a Malaysia-registered car molested a 14-year-old passenger after she requested a ride via the SG Hitch group on messaging platform Telegram.
On July 3, Fong Tong Zjin, 23, was sentenced to 14 months’ jail and three strokes of the cane after he pleaded guilty to a molestation charge.
The Malaysian was also fined $1,800 for offences including using the car as a public service vehicle without a valid licence to do so.
At around 5pm on Nov 25, 2023, the victim went on the SG Hitch group and requested a ride from a block of flats in Yishun Ring Road to the Primz Bizhub building in Woodlands Close.
Fong responded to her in a private message, and they agreed that she would pay him $8 for transporting her there.
Around 20 minutes later, he arrived in a BMW car. Even though the car was registered to his girlfriend’s brother, Fong was the main user of the vehicle and was responsible for financing it, the court heard.
Upon arrival, the victim was about to open the back door of the car when Fong opened the front passenger seat door and told her to sit beside him.

She agreed, and Fong was driving the car when he asked to hold her hand.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Yap Jia Jun told the court: “When the victim did not respond, the accused used his left hand to hold onto the victim’s right hand, with their fingers intertwined.
“He also rubbed her palm with his thumb, and commented that her hand was smooth. The victim did not resist. This lasted three to five minutes.”

Fong later groped the teenager’s chest before withdrawing his hand, and touched her private parts.
The DPP added: “The more the victim tried to push the accused’s hand away, the more he touched her.
“The victim remained in the car because she was afraid of dying if she jumped out. Instead, she just asked the accused to drive faster.”
The victim later reached her destination and Fong deleted the Telegram chat that he had with her.
Court documents did not disclose what happened next, but Fong was arrested on Nov 26, 2023.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said that for commuters’ own safety, it strongly encourages those who wish to book carpooling services to do so via licensed or permitted licence-exempt business platforms.
An LTA spokesperson added: “The operators of these platforms would maintain a record of the driver and trip in the event of an incident or dispute.
“Operators would also be required to verify the validity of drivers’ licences... Illegal carpooling trips matched through informal channels such as Telegram chat groups do not offer such commuter safeguards.”

 

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Commentary: Relocating for work is tough — but the gains are well worth the discomfort and hassle​

Nurjannah Suhaimi/TODAY
Overseas experience is attractive to employers, notes the writer, but being away from home has its trade-offs. How can we best weigh the gains and costs?



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More and more Singaporeans are seeking to broaden their prospects abroad, but being away from the comforts of home has its trade-offs, notes the writer. How can we best weigh the gains and costs for ourselves?

Dawn SooThe author with her husband, Finlay Wright, in Hong Kong in March 2023, shortly before they relocated to Dubai

By Dawn Soo
Published September 12, 2024
Updated September 12,

One wonders: Is it truly worth it to leave our little red dot and venture abroad?

According to a new study by Cigna Healthcare, globally mobile individuals experience higher stress levels (86 per cent compared to the global average of 80 per cent). However, they also report better mental well-being — 58 per cent of globally mobile respondents report “excellent” or “very good” levels of mental well-being, compared to the global average of 46 per cent.

This suggests that while international assignments can be challenging, the resilience and adaptability developed through these experiences can also contribute significantly to overall well-being, and by extension, fulfilment in one’s career and life.

Read also​

'Singaporeans need to level up': Companies say flexi-work could push them to hire overseas​

However, while overseas assignments can be immensely valuable for personal and professional development, we first have to be clear-headed about the benefits and priorities we are seeking before making that leap.
Having spent a significant chunk of my career based outside of Singapore, here’s my two cents on the matter.

 

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Jail for voyeur who preyed on at least 27 victims, including 3 close female friends​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Jul 11, 2024

SINGAPORE - Over a period of about four years, a voyeur targeted at least 27 victims, including three close female friends, who felt betrayed after finding out he had secretly recorded intimate videos of them.
One of them, identified in court documents as the first victim, was so shaken by her ordeal that she had to undergo counselling for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Another close friend, identified as the second victim, found it difficult to concentrate and had to ask for a six-month extension to complete her PhD to a satisfactory standard.
The offender, who committed his first offence in February 2019, identified 21 of his other victims as former colleagues, college friends and a former intern. He could not recognise the others.
The Malaysian man, 33, was a software engineer when he was arrested in 2023. His electronic devices were later found to contain 53 upskirt videos and at least 40 videos of some victims showering.
On July 11, he was sentenced to 20 months and four weeks’ jail after he pleaded guilty to five charges including multiple counts of voyeurism.
Eight other charges were considered during sentencing. He has not been named to protect the identities of his victims.

He took an upskirt video of another close friend, identified as the third victim in court documents, in 2019 when she was 24 years old.
The woman, her boyfriend whom she later married, and the offender were close. The couple would ask him to take care of her rented apartment whenever they went overseas.
While taking care of the unit, the offender would invite other friends over to hang out.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tay Jia En said: “Unbeknownst to his friends, the accused took the opportunity to commit various voyeuristic offences there.
“The accused intentionally recorded six of his friends by placing his handphone in the toilet of the (apartment) to record them in a state of undress.”
He also recorded upskirt videos of the third victim inside her own home in 2021 and 2022. She felt “very vulnerable and attacked” when she found out what he had done, the court heard.
DPP Tay said: “She is now sceptical of everyone around her. The third victim is presently seeking professional help with a psychotherapist.”

The second victim was 21 when the man used a mobile phone to record her private acts in a toilet in 2019.
In 2021, he placed the device in various undisclosed hidden locations to record her in a state of undress on at least four occasions.
DPP Tay told the court: “The second victim now felt that... trust was abused, and she no longer knows who she can trust, no longer feeling safe around many of her male friends, and even her own father.
“(She) had recurring dreams that she was being assaulted by different men that she trusted.”
The first victim first met the offender during a university programme in 2014, and they grew close to each other. She was 24 in 2019 when he recorded her private acts in a toilet.
Between 2020 and 2023, he repeatedly recorded her in a state of undress by placing his mobile phone at various undisclosed hidden locations.
His offences came to light on April 8, 2023, when she invited him and two male friends to her home to play board games.
He placed his mobile phone on top of a box in her bedroom, activated the recording mode and left the room.
The woman was drying her hair in her bedroom after a shower when she spotted the device.
She alerted the police after finding incriminating contents on the phone, and he was arrested at around 10.30pm that day.
The DPP said: “(She) had to take two weeks off from work because the ‘constant nightmares, insomnia and paranoia’ left her exhausted and unable to function.”
Following his arrest, the offender told investigators that the videos he had taken were meant for his own viewing, and he had not shared them with others.

 

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Woman got colleague to hire maid on her behalf to bypass work permit rules; all 3 get jail​

The woman had already hired another maid on paper to allow her acquaintance to find part-time cleaning work in Singapore.

File photo of a foreign domestic worker.

Lydia Lam​

15 Jul 2024


SINGAPORE: A marketing operations manager working in Singapore on an employment pass agreed to help an acquaintance by hiring her as a maid on paper in exchange for money.
This was despite her knowing that the acquaintance would be sourcing for her own work and wanted the work permit only to stay in Singapore.
However, when the manager needed a maid to care for her toddler, she could not hire one as she already had one on record. She then turned to a colleague to help hire another maid on paper in the colleague's name.
Those involved - two maids and their two employers on paper - have been sentenced to jail for flouting foreign employment laws.
On Monday (Jul 15), 48-year-old marketing operations manager Loraine Bucud Arat was sentenced to nine weeks' jail. Her colleague Chuang Tiew Jong Veronica, a 72-year-old Singaporean, was handed 12 days' jail, while 41-year-old Filipina maid Pestano Jeannette Masinsin received five weeks' imprisonment.
The fourth woman - domestic helper Cerbas Melanie Selerio, was sentenced in 2021 to eight weeks' imprisonment.
Jeannette and Chuang pleaded guilty to one charge each under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act of submitting a false statement in a work permit application for a domestic helper.
Loraine pleaded guilty to one charge of making a false statement in her application for a maid's work permit for Melanie, and a second charge for conspiring with Jeannette and Chuang to make another false statement in the work permit application for Jeannette. A third charge was considered in sentencing.

THE CASE​

According to court documents, Loraine worked as a marketing operations manager in Singapore on an employment pass.
In 2016, she got to know Melanie, a domestic helper working for another family in Singapore, through a volleyball game.
In late 2017, Melanie asked Loraine if she knew anyone who needed a maid. The two women discussed the issue and Loraine agreed to apply for a domestic helper work permit for Melanie in her name.
They had an understanding that Melanie would use the work permit to remain in Singapore and look for her own employment, and that Loraine would not actually be her employer.
As part of the agreement, Melanie agreed to bear her own monthly levy of S$300, and to pay Loraine monthly rental and utility fees of between S$300 and S$400.
Loraine submitted an application to the Ministry of Manpower's Work Pass Division in June 2018 to employ Melanie as a domestic helper at her home.
This false arrangement went on for just over a year, with Melanie doing part-time cleaning work around Singapore until her work permit was cancelled in September 2019.
In late 2017, around the same time Loraine had agreed to help Melanie with her false application, Loraine brought her toddler to Singapore to start schooling.
Loraine had hired Jeannette as a nanny in the Philippines in June 2015 to care for her daughter, who was aged one then. Loraine then relocated to Singapore for work and left her daughter in the Philippines with Jeannette.
In late 2017, Loraine wanted to bring Jeannette over to Singapore so Jeanette could care for her girl, who was about three years old by then.
However, she was unsuccessful in applying for a maid permit for Jeannette, as she was already the work permit employer for Melanie.
Around October 2018, Loraine asked her colleague Chuang to help obtain a work permit for Jeannette. She explained to Chuang that she could not succeed in getting one for Jeannette, whom she wanted to care for her daughter.
The reason for her failure was not disclosed to Chuang.
At that time, Loraine had been taking her daughter to the office regularly, disrupting her work performance. In light of this, Chuang agreed to help Loraine.
She submitted a work permit application to hire Jeannette as a maid at her address. After the application was approved, Jeannette entered Singapore, stayed with Loraine and worked for her.
For about nine months from November 2018, the trio maintained the arrangement. During this period, Chuang also hired Jeannette to clean her own home about twice a month.
Each session lasted about five hours, and Chuang would pay Jeannette S$50.
MOM received a tip-off about possible contravention of foreign employment laws and began investigating the case in November 2019.

PROSECUTION CALLS FOR JAIL​

MOM prosecutor Khong Zi-Wei on Monday sought 11 weeks' jail for Loraine, six weeks for Jeannette and three to four weeks for Chuang.
Mr Khong said Loraine had masterminded the scheme, approaching Chuang with her proposal, which included Loraine transferring Jeannette's monthly levy to Chuang and for Loraine to prepare all the necessary administrative paperwork.
Chuang agreed, but did not make any financial gains from the arrangement.
Mr Khong said MOM would not have issued the work permit for Jeannette if it knew she would be working for Loraine, since Loraine's applications for Jeannette had been rejected twice.
Mr Khong said the deception was "conscious and planned", allowing Jeannette to remain in Singapore for nine months before her permit was cancelled.
He said Chuang's actions had allowed both Loraine and Jeannette to abuse the work pass framework.
"She had effectively deprived a foreign employee (and prospective employer) of an opportunity to work legally in Singapore as a migrant domestic worker," said Mr Khong.
While Chuang did not benefit financially, she was an intermediary between Loraine and Jeannette. She was also able to enjoy the benefits of Jeannette's domestic work as and when she required, without having to maintain her as a domestic helper under the work pass and regulatory conditions.

DEFENCE'S MITIGATION​

The three women were represented by Mr Laurence Goh from Laurence Goh Eng Yau & Co.
He sought leniency for his clients, saying that Chuang in particular was "quite a sick lady" who survived cancer.
She cannot squat and has to go to the toilet about five times a night, and the condition has given her a lot of difficulties in her movement, said Mr Goh.
He said Chuang cooperated fully, and received no financial gain. In her old age and immobile situation, she accepted it when Jeannette helped her to clean the house and gave S$50 for Jeannette's help "in appreciation", said Mr Goh.
He said it was "impromptu" and not a fixed situation where it was agreed Jeannette would clean Chuang's home a certain number of times a month.
He said all three women had intended to plead guilty at the first instance, but were advised to seek legal advice as they were facing jail terms.
District Judge Ronald Gwee said this offence was one that MOM has given "sufficient publicity about", and is particularly difficult to detect.
If MOM has to inspect and examine employment situations regularly, it would strain its resources, said the judge.
He agreed with the prosecution that sufficiently stern sentences have to be meted out, as in many of such cases, the offenders do not feel that what they did "is so seriously wrong".
If MOM's efforts to control the employment situation are hampered, it could lead to many negative effects for the country, said the judge.