Man jailed, fined for cheating and assisting loansharks
By Shaffiq Alkhatib | Posted: 19 July 2011 1433 hrs
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SINGAPORE: A former cleaner was jailed and fined on Tuesday for cheating and assisting loansharks.
Thirty-seven-year-old Lewis Kam Boon Kiat, who used to earn only S$350, wanted to apply for a credit card from Maybank.
To do so, he lied in his application form, claiming that he was a manager who earned more than S$4,000 monthly.
He also enclosed a false Central Provident Fund (CPF) statement with the documents he submitted to the bank in January.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ruth Wong told the court that Kam, who is now jobless, did this as credit facility is eligible only to those who earn at least S$30,000 annually.
DPP Wong added that the bank approved the application and Kam then withdrew S$8,000 from the overdraft account on February 15.
Besides cheating, he was also convicted of two counts of helping illegal moneylenders.
Kam, who pleaded guilty to three of five charges, was sentenced on Tuesday to three months' jail and fined S$70,000.
Kam committed the offences under the Moneylenders Act when he handed over his ATM cards to two different loansharks to assist them with their business.
He gave a card to a loanshark known as "Batam" last September and a second card to "Sony", another illegal moneylender, about five months later.
For cheating, Kam could have been jailed up to ten years and fined.
And for helping the loansharks, he could have been jailed - on each charge - up to four years, fined a maximum of S$300,000 and caned a maximum of six strokes.
- CNA/fa
