Former property agent pleads guilty to cheating, forgery

[Admiral Piett]

Former property agent pleads guilty to cheating, forgery
By Shaffiq Alkhatib | Posted: 26 January 2011 1524 hrs
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SINGAPORE: A former property agent pleaded guilty on Wednesday to offences including cheating and forgery.

Thirty-eight-year-old Anika Priyadharshini pleaded guilty to offences involving S$183,556.29.

She originally faced 69 charges, but 44 of them were taken into consideration while two others were withdrawn.

She even cheated two of her clients of S$58,800, a district court heard on Wednesday.

Anika befriended one of her victims, 49-year-old Lohambal Doraisamy in October 2008 and told her that she was a property agent.

Ms Lohambal informed her in November that year that she wanted to buy a flat at Block 246, Bangkit Road in the Bukit Panjang area.

She told Anika that another agent had informed her that the flat owner wanted seventy thousand Singapore dollars cash above the property's valuation.

Anika said that she was able to get a better offer for the same unit.

She later lied to Ms Lohambal, claiming that the flat owner agreed to sell the unit at a purchase price below the initial valuation.

It turned out that the flat owner had never met Anika and had already secured another buyer for the apartment.

The former agent told Ms Lohambal about a month later that the seller supposedly asked for a deposit of forty thousand Singapore dollars and Ms Lohambal gave her the cash on December 17, 2008.

She also told Ms Lohambal in January 2009 that she needed more money to pay for so-called items such as stamp and agent fees.

Believing her, the older woman passed her cash totalling S$14,390.

She also cheated 31-year-old computer programmer, Balaiah Muthu Ramalingam of S$4,410 in 2008.

She lied to him, claiming that the amount was an advance rental payment for a flat at Toh Guan Road in Jurong East.

The court heard that she used all the monies from her two victims for her own expenses.

Besides these, Anika also forged the signatures of three people including her ex-boyfriend, 37-year-old Selva Seelan Ramalinggam, between November 2007 and August 2009.

She did it to get credit cards and mobile phones.

Anika will be back in court on February 14.

 

[zuoom]

would she get her CEA licence?

 

[Vultan]

Feb 14, 2011

Ex-property agent jailed for cheating and forgery

By Khushwant Singh

BETWEEN November 2007 and February last year, property agent Anika Priyadharshini, 38, cheated clients and credit companies of nearly $292,000.

The divorcee of two failed marriages was jailed 41/2 years by a district court on Monday. The mother of three pleaded guilty to 23 charges. The judge took into consideration 44 other charges when passing sentence.

She was an agent with DTZ Debenham Tie Leung when she met Ms Lohambal Doraisamy in a temple in late 2008. In December 2008, Priyadharshini claimed that she had been able to convince a seller of a Bukit Panjang flat to lower his asking price by $20,000.

She then pocketed the $40,000 that Ms Doraisamy handed her as a deposit to purchase the unit. A month later, she convinced the other woman to hand over $14,390 for stamp duties.

During that period the agent also hoodwinked a computer programmer that she had a flat to rent out and then disappeared with the $4,410 he gave her as the rental and security deposit.

The former agent also forged court papers that stated she would receive the full proceeds from the sale of the matrimonial flat after divorce proceedings to get a $15,000 loan from a licensed moneylender in High Street Plaza. Priyadharshini, a bankrupt, also lied on the loan application form about her bankruptcy status.

The court heard that she also used the particulars of her boyfriend to apply for credit cards and used these for fraudulent purchases amounting to $9,680. She also used the identity cards of her clients to subscribe to cellphone plans.

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