Z
Zhen Ji
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Jun 9, 2011
Jailed for 'lending name' for bank loan to buy car
By Khushwant Singh
For $500, a dishwasher allowed an acquaintance to use his name and false documents to apply for a bank loan of $175,000 to buy a sports car. -- PHOTO: BIG FISH PUBLISHING
FOR $500, a dishwasher allowed an acquaintance to use his name and false documents to apply for a bank loan of $175,000 to buy a sports car.
In a district court on Thursday, Lek Kar Lim, 52, was jailed 10 months for engaging in a conspiracy to cheat OCBC Bank. He had pleaded guilty on May 30. Then, the court heard that the false documents provided to the bank were:
* A record of Lek's supposedly CPF contributions for October 2008 to September 2009;
* A 2009 Income Tax Notice of Assessment stating his income was $124,386;
* An OCBC application form that stated that Lek was employed as a senior operations manager with a firm named Carbi Deco Leather.
Assistant Public Prosecutor K. Kalaithasan told the court then that in May last year, OCBC Bank informed police that it had received several fraudulent loan applications for car purchases.
Investigations then revealed that in August 2009, Lek had asked acquaintance Yim Meng, 60, for help in getting a job.
The other man offered $500 for help in a scheme to buy a car with a bank loan in Lek's name. Someone else would use the vehicle and pay its loan repayments. The loan was approved early last year and Lek received the 'coffee-money'.
It was also the last time he saw Mr Yim, who is now hiding from the police. The car, an Audi TT, was repossessed in July last year while parked at a hotel in Malaysia.
Lek was arrested in August and found to be operating an illegal gaming house in Geylang. Two months later, he was nabbed again for running another gaming place in Sims Avenue.
Including the penalties for these two offences, Lek will have to serve 13 months in jail and pay a fine of $60,000 or serve another six months in lieu.
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