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Man jailed for cheating friend of S$878,000

Ginchiyo Tachibana

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset

Man jailed for cheating friend of S$878,000

Posted: 26 July 2012 1542 hrs

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SINGAPORE: A bankrupt who cheated his friend of almost S$878,000 has been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years' jail.

For more than two years, 37-year-old Lee Chee Heng meticulously wiped out his friend's savings, and caused him to incur debts with 11 financial institutions.

Lee learnt that his friend had received a hefty insurance payout after suffering a heart attack.

The prosecution described Lee's deed as the "relentless and ruthless financial destruction of the victim".

Lee pleaded guilty to 24 counts of cheating. Ninety-nine other similar counts were taken into consideration.

About 5 per cent of the money (S$47,570) taken from the victim has been recovered through the sale of Lee's BMW car which was purchased with the illegal proceeds.

The victim cannot be named due to a gag order.

The ruse, which began in 2008, saw Lee posing as a lawyer and deceiving the victim into buying a condominium unit at Marina Boulevard.

Convinced by Lee that it was a good investment, the victim forked out amounts varying between S$12,000 and S$64,000 on several occasions.

Lee told the victim that the money was for various legal and financial proceedings.

To strengthen his story, Lee started creating more complex situations, including inventing fictitious characters.

He masqueraded as different persons, including Indonesian buyers of the unit.

He even bought pre-paid SIM cards to correspond with the victim as fictitious persons.

The court heard that the victim was more than S$800,000 in debt due to Lee's manipulations.

The prosecution highlighted that despite "the victim's anguish being apparent", Lee continued to press him for more payments and even assured him that his bogus law firm would handle the matter.

The victim, in a statement, claimed that he had trusted Lee and did not suspect that he was lying.

He added that he had "felt pressured to keep giving Lee the money he requested" as he had "already invested so much in the condominium unit".

Lee, in a handwritten mitigation statement, pleaded for leniency after stating his remorse.

The court heard that Lee was jailed 33 months in 2002, after he pocketed S$16,000 through forging cheques.

For cheating, Lee could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined for each charge.

- CNA/cc
 
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