S'pore woman, 49, married with 2 children, charms 3 younger men into giving her over S$300,000
One man cheated his family out of their life savings for her.
Fiona Tan
A 49-year-old married woman with two children cheated ten people out of S$880,448.40.
Among them were two younger men who fell in love with her.
Another lover cheated his family over S$150,000 to give it to her.
According to CNA, Today and The Straits Times, Joceyln Kwek Sok Koon pleaded guilty to multiple cheating charges on Oct. 12, 2023.
Who were the three younger men?
Lai Sze Yin, lover and deliveryman
Kwek was declared bankrupt in January 2014.She got to know her lover and co-accused, Lai Sze Yin, in July 2016 when he delivered a parcel to her home.
Lai was 19 years younger than her.
At that time, Lai, aged 24, worked as a deliveryman after completing National Service.
Despite being married, Kwek began a romantic relationship with Lai.
Lai knew she was married and didn't tell his parents her real identity.
Kwek masqueraded as a 24-year-old National University of Singapore student called Rachel Lam Xin Yi.
She never met the parents but only spoke through phone calls.
To gain their trust, she sent them gifts.
Lai cheated his parents and younger sister for a total of S$150,454 from March 2017 to October 2017.
He gave the money to Kwek.
In October 2018, Lai's mother lodged a police report saying her son's girlfriend had cheated her entire savings and had been uncontactable for over a year.
Lai was sentenced to 15 months in jail on Jun. 7, 2021, for his part in the offences.
He promised his parents that he would work extremely hard to return all their life savings as soon as possible.
The Certis Cisco employee
Besides Lai, two more men also fell head over heels for Kwek, both without ever meeting her.Kwek got acquainted with a 35-year-old Certis Cisco employee after she sent an email query to Certis Cisco.
The man fell for Kwek while chatting despite having never seen or met her.
However, his love for her was one-sided, as Kwek only pretended.
She sent him photos of a Korean blogger pretending to be her, but the man found out about the lie after doing a reverse Google image search.
He confronted Kwek but ultimately decided to continue his relationship with her.
Kwek came up with various excuses to convince the besotted man to give her around S$48,000 between September 2017 and March 2019.
He only realised he was a victim of a love scam in June 2021 and lodged a police report.
Kwek was supposed to go to a police station to give her statement but kept rescheduling her appointments, one of which coincided with the first day of her trial for Lai's case.
Kwek returned the man around S$1,900 in April 2021.
The piano shop salesman
Kwek's other scam victim was a 39-year-old salesman who worked at a piano shop.The pair began texting after the salesman approached Kwek on WhatsApp for work sometime in 2020.
Kwek pretended to be an only child of a wealthy family with a freight forwarding business and convinced the salesman by showing him pictures of "her property", buying expensive abalone in bulk from his friend, and buying him expensive gifts.
They began a "relationship" in 2021 — one that the salesman continued with Kwek despite realising that she had been lying after she sent him a screenshot of an Instagram profile of another person and claimed it was her.
During their "relationship", Kwek came up with several excuses to get money from the salesman.
The salesman took loans from his mother, sister and friends to cough up the money that Kwek wanted.
He fell into financial difficulties after quitting his salesman job, as Kwek lied to him that she could get him a job at her family’s business.
He only realised he was scammed after another one of Kwek's victims reached out to him.
By then, Kwek had cheated him into giving her about a total of S$103,710 and had stopped replying to his messages and calls on Apr. 18, 2022 — the same day that she was remanded after her bail was revoked.
He lodged a police report two days later, on Apr. 20, 2022.
Kwek has returned the man around S$10,000.
Other victims
Husband's British ex-colleague
While Kwek was on bail, she targetted her husband's ex-colleague at a bank, a 66-year-old British man.In March 2020, when she had already been charged with multiple offences, Kwek approached the man and told him she needed money to claim her inheritance.
To assure him, she engaged lawyers to draft letters and even included him in a group chat, posing as a male lawyer to discuss "legal matters".
She told the man several other lies, such as faking to have leukaemia, to cheat him of a total of S$338,600.
To buy herself time to repay him, she also lied that she could help him and his family's application for permanent residency (PR) by acting as their sponsor.
She instructed him not to contact the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) or Ministry of Manpower (MOM), or he would be immediately deported.
The man lost his job at the bank in January 2021.
His employment pass was cancelled, but he stayed in Singapore after Kwek told him that his PR application had been approved.
She told him not to take up any other job offers in the meantime and not to contact ICA or MOM and forged documents from ICA when the man asked her for proof.
The man wound up overstaying and was investigated by ICA.
He fell into debt, and his mental health deteriorated.
It has not been reported if Kwek returned his money.
Her own godmother
Kwek's own godmother was another one of her victims.In November 2017, the 73-year-old woman passed Kwek over 50 pieces of jewellery worth over S$50,000, most of which were family heirlooms, after Kwek offered to clean them, The Straits Times reported.
However, Kwek pawned all the jewellery for S$48,250 and used the money to pay her debts.
Kwek invented excuses when her godmother asked for the jewellery back, sometimes to the point of pleading, and only gave in when the older woman threatened to lodge a police report.
Even then, Kwek gave the older woman some random pieces of jewellery that were not hers and a few thousand dollars.
A younger woman
Kwek cheated a 33-year-old woman of nearly S$180,000 between October 2021 and April 2022.She told the woman she needed loans for various reasons, including paying some purported insurance premiums.
Pleaded guilty on Oct. 12, 2023
Kwek has been remanded since Apr. 18, 2022.CNA reported that she was wearing a mask and appeared haggard while in court on Oct. 12, 2023.
Kwek pleaded guilty to one charge of criminal breach of trust and six charges of cheating.
Another 17 similar charges were taken into consideration.
"Serial cheat" with "no qualms" about lying
The prosecutor sought a jail term between 91 to 100 months.Highlighting that Kwek had scammed "at least 10 known victims of a substantial amount of money", the prosecutor said Kwek should not be treated as a first-time offender despite her clean record and described her as a "serial cheat" who had "no qualms" about lying to her victims.
The prosecutor called her "a seasoned and skilled manipulator who repeatedly and brazenly flouted the law”.
Kwek's lawyer asked for more time to respond to the prosecution's submissions.
Kwek is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 31, 2023.
