Man who stole sister's credit card to buy game credits online jailed for 14 weeks, fined $30,000
Regan Lau Chiew Sheng was jailed for 14 weeks and fined $30,000.
[video=youtube;uxdShT6iFyg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxdShT6iFyg[/video]
Published 5 hours ago
Amir Hussain
SINGAPORE - A 21-year-old man was jailed for 14 weeks and fined $30,000 on Wednesday (Feb 3) for a series of offences, including stealing his sister's credit card to purchase some $7,500 worth of credits from an online gaming website.
Regan Lau Chiew Sheng pleaded guilty to eight counts of theft, cheating, assisting an unlicensed moneylender, and gaining access without authority to a computer program.
He also admitted to another three counts of cheating and nine other charges of unlawfully gaining access to a computer program, which were taken into consideration during sentencing.
A district court heard that in the early hours of June 10, 2014, Lau took his sister's credit card and mobile phone out of her handbag while she was sleeping at their home.
He used the credit card to buy some game credits from an online gaming website.
In the span of about two hours, he spent a total of $7,515 on the credit card, by making 12 transactions which cost between $14 and $1,996 each.
Later that afternoon, he took the phone to a mobile phone shop in Geylang and paid $50 to have it unlocked, before giving it to a friend. The friend lost the phone at a nightclub the next week.
Lau's sister later made a police report about the phone and credit card theft.
She had to pay the credit card company $2,500, while the company wrote off the remaining sum.
On June 24, 2014, while he was serving his national service, Lau conned another man into transferring him $110, by pretending to sell a code which could be used to buy virtual items on a gaming network.
In April last year, Lau also set up a profile on online marketplace Carousell to sell Universal Studios Singapore tickets, when he had none.
He advertised tickets for sale at low prices, and conned two buyers into transferring him $250 in total.
In July 2013, Lau also assisted a loanshark by opening a bank account, and then handing over his ATM card to a runner working for the unlicensed moneylender.
For stealing his sister's credit card and mobile phone, Lau could have been jailed for seven years and fined. For causing a computer to perform a function, for the purpose of unlawfully securing access to a program held in a computer, by buying the online game credits on his sister's credit card, Lau could have been jailed for two years and fined $5,000.
For cheating, he could have been jailed for 10 years and fined. For assisting an unlicensed moneylender, he could have been jailed for four years and fined up to $300,000.
Lau has returned $2,500 to his sister.
