Z
Zhuge Liang
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Apr 13, 2011
Man jailed 10 months for rental vehicle scam
By Elena Chong
Syamsul Hilal Ismail, 29, who came up with a rental vehicle scam to cheat his victims has been jailed for 10 months. -- PHOTO: SPF
A MAN who came up with a rental vehicle scam to cheat his victims has been jailed for 10 months.
Since Syamsul Hilal Ismail, 29, was in need of money to pay off his debts in 2010, he posted an advertisement at the websites www.gumtree.sg and www.cars.sg-rentals.com.
He downloaded pictures of different models of vehicles from the Internet and uploaded them onto his advertisement, inviting customers to rent vehicles during the Hari Raya period.
The victims responded and paid him amounts ranging from $200 to $550 between August and September 2010.
In two cases, he claimed that he could give out loans to low-income earners and duped them into transferring an upfront interest of $1,000 into his bank account.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Amardeep Singh told the court that Syamsul used the name of Muhammad Nazzon and a fake address to enter into car rental agreements with the victims.
When the victims tried to collect the cars at addresses given, they could not. On some occasions, he promised to deliver the cars, but failed to do so. When victims tried to call him, his mobile was switched off or he could not be reached.
On Tuesday, he admitted to 15 counts of cheating and three counts of misappropriating $6,603 worth of laptops belonging to Temasek Junior College between April and June 2010, when he was working there as a technical assistant. Another 72 charges were taken into consideration.
He could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined on each count of cheating; and up to seven years and fined for each charge of criminal breach of trust.
