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Thursday, Jul 04, 2013
SINGAPORE - Four friends lent Chia Wei Jian $9,000 for his dad's funeral expenses - then went to his home where the "dead man" opened the door.
Chia, 28, now a chief technology officer, was yesterday fined $8,000 for cheating.
He had pretended to weep when he called buddy Loh Chung Howe, 39, on April 29 last year, begging to borrow $3,000 after texting him the tragic news five hours earlier.
He then drove to Mr Loh's house at 11.30pm and took him to an ATM to withdraw the money.
He also told Mr Loh that the wake was to be held at a funeral parlour in Lavender Street.
The next day, Mr Loh visited the parlour to pay his respects - but there was no sign of any wake for Chia's father.
Mr Loh then called three other friends he knew had also lent money to Chia, and they decided to go to his house.
They rang the doorbell - and seconds later, were shocked to be confronted by Chia's father. Mr Loh went to the police on May 1 that year.
Chia admitted to the offences, which were carried out in April last year. He also cheated two other chums with similar lies.
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On April 29, he got one to lend him $2,000 after he claimed that he had knocked down a pedestrian and that he needed the sum urgently to compensate the victim.
Then on May 22 last year, he called another mate in Singapore to say that he had lost all his money to a pickpocket in Kuala Lumpur.
The friend transferred $1,800 into his bank account.
Police investigations revealed that Chia had suffered huge losses in trading shares early last year.
Pleading for leniency, Chia said that he had returned the full sum of $12,800 to the victims.
Arguing that a stiff fine was appropriate, Deputy Public Prosecutor Carene Poh said that Chia had planned the offences.
She said: "He would call a friend, spin a lie and prey on their goodwill to cheat them of money."
In passing sentence, District Judge Low Wee Ping told Chia that he had committed very serious offences and it was fortunate that the prosecution was not pressing for a jail sentence.
For cheating, he could have been fined up to $10,000, jailed for up to three years, or both.
