Woman forges cheques worth $1m for branded goods

[Cammy]

Woman forges cheques worth $1m for branded goods
By Jo-ann Huang | Posted: 27 April 2011 2337 hrs

SINGAPORE: Branded goods, holidays with her family and household expenses - that was what a woman who was convicted of forging cheques worth S$1 million spent the criminal proceeds on, a court heard Wednesday.

Samantha Chiam Hwee Theng, 31, also had about 200 pairs of shoes and 80 branded bags, with multiple purchases of the same item, the court heard.

The police have recovered a number of branded handbags, along with almost S$450,000 worth of jewellery and luxury watches.

Chiam, a former secretary for the director of Triple Electronic David Wu, was charged in September last year for forging the signatures of Mr Wu on 32 of his cheques.

She has been in remand since.

According to court documents, between 2008 and 2009, Chiam forged Mr Wu's signature on US-dollar dominated cheques of his account in Changhwa Bank, a Taiwanese bank.

She would encash the cheques into Singapore dollars at money changers Great East Forex. On the last occasion, on 17 Feb 2009, she encashed a US$500,000 (S$750,500) cheque.

Mr Wu noticed this withdrawal five months later and confronted her.

A month later, Chiam decided to confess to her crimes and surrendered herself to the police after consulting a lawyer.

Yesterday, lawyers from the prosecution and the defence presented their psychiatric evaluations of Ms Chiam to the court.

The defence said, in mitigation, that Chiam is suffering from a mental illness known as compulsive-impulsive disorder, which led her to spend large sums of money on shopping.

For example, she was reported to have spent at least S$10,000 at Louis Vuitton and S$30,000 at Chanel on each shopping trip to the luxury outlets.

But the prosecution said that Chiam's acts of forgery were pre-meditated and planned, and did not involve any impulsive behaviour associated with compulsive-impulsive disorder.

Chiam's mitigation plea also told of her desire to elevate her social status among her peers, by buying branded goods, some of which she kept for her own private collection and some she gave away to friends and colleagues.

"Without my branded goods, I am nothing," she said in her plea.

Her sentencing has been arranged for June 6.

- CNA/cc

 

[Balrog]

Jun 6, 2011

Woman jailed for cheque forgery amounting to $1.2m

By Elena Chong

Samantha Chiam Hwee Theng, 30, forged the signature of her former boss on nine cheques amounting to $1.2 million and was jailed for four years and 11 months on Monday. -- ST PHOTO: LIM CHIN PING

A WOMAN who forged the signature of her former boss on nine cheques amounting to $1.2 million was jailed for four years and 11 months on Monday.

Samantha Chiam Hwee Theng, 30, spent the money on branded goods, holiday with family members and household expenses.

Following her guilty plea to nine charges in March, the court had remanded the former personal secretary for psychiatric evaluation.

The psychiatrist was asked specifically to comment on whether there was any causal link between any mental disorder that she might be suffering from, and her offences.

The defence had submitted a psychiatirc report by Dr Y.C. Lim from Raffles Hospital that Chiam was suffering from a compulsive and impulsive, or 'shopaholic', disorder.

But Dr Jerome Goh from Institute of Mental Health disagreed with Dr Lim's diagnosis.

Instead, he said she had no mental illness and clearly, there was no causal link between the impulse control disorder that Chiam might have been suffering from and her offences.

Background:

The court was told that between 2008 and 2009, Chiam forged the signature of her then boss, Mr Wu Chin Wei, 39, a director of Triple Electronic, on cheques and exchanged the US dollar-denominated cheques for Singapore dollars with a company dealing in foreign exchange.

Mr Wu found out that US$500,000 (S$615,400) had been withdrawn from the bank account in July 2009, and confronted Chiam, who admitted that she had forged his signature on cheques and cashed out the money.

Police recovered an assortment of items such as jewellery, branded handbags and luxury watches worth about $449,468. She paid back $100,000 to the complainant in August 2009.

Chiam, who had 24 other charges taken into consideration, could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined on each charge.

 

[Cammy]

Jun 8, 2011

IN THE ST NEWSPAPER TODAY
'She's in jail, but I want my money back'
Boss says he won't rest till he recovers amount secretary took

By K.C. Vijayan & Kimberly Spykerman

Mr David Wu (above) says Chiam did not appear to be remorseful for what she had done. He says the fact that she had taken the money to buy branded goods - and not for her family or children - made it harder for him to let the matter go. -- ST PHOTO: TED CHEN

THE woman who stole from her former boss may have drawn a 59-month jail term but he will not have closure till he gets back the $2.2 million he says he lost.

In August last year, Mr David Wu sued Samantha Chiam, his former personal assistant, in the High Court for the return of $1.3 million and obtained judgment against her.

She had already returned $100,000 after her dishonest acts were found out and surrendered $450,000 worth of luxury goods.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.

[email protected]
[email protected]

 

[Cammy]

Mr David Wu says Chiam (above) did not appear to be remorseful for what she had done. He says the fact that she had taken the money to buy branded goods - and not for her family or children - made it harder for him to let the matter go. -- ST PHOTO: TED CHEN


​