'Serial offender': HDB flat owner cheated 14 would-be tenants of S$63k over 4 years; gets jail
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- Santa Maria Michele Theresa, 58, was handed a 15 months' jail sentence on Thursday (Aug 8)
- The Singaporean had cheated 14 victims of more than S$63,000 by convincing them to rent out her home, even though they never got to move in
- Theresa's home was rented by someone else, or she had not obtained HDB's approval to rent her unit
- She would also tug at the heartstrings of some of her victims to receive more in deposits by claiming a family member had a medical condition, among other things
By
Loraine Lee
Published August 8, 2024Updated August 8, 2024
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SINGAPORE — A 58-year-old landlady convinced 14 people to rent her Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat even though the unit had been rented to someone else, or HDB had not approved her to rent out the unit.
Between 2020 and 2023, Santa Maria Michele Theresa cheated her victims — all foreigners — of more than S$63,000. Most of the would-be tenants never got to move in.
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She had been arrested and was on bail for some of the cheating offences. But instead of reflecting on her wrongdoing, Theresa continued to cheat more people of their money while on bail by making them believe she would rent out her HDB unit to them.
On Thursday (Aug 8), she pleaded guilty to five charges of cheating and was sentenced to 15 months' jail. Another 10 similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
WHAT HAPPENED
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Kelly Ng said Theresa was the owner of the HDB unit, but did not live in it.Read also
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HDB had granted her approval to rent out the home for three years: Between March 2018 and 2019, January and December 2020, and October 2021 and October 2022. She also sought approval to do so between January and September 2023, but HDB rejected this.
Theresa listed the property on several rental platforms, such as Gumtree, Carousell and PropertyGuru, and advertised that she was renting the unit out between 2019 and 2023.
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When a prospective tenant approached her, they would come to an agreement on a monthly rent and she would ask for a few months in advance to serve as a security deposit.
She would then sign a tenancy agreement with her victims, making them believe they would be able to rent out the unit.
However, the unit was either rented to other people, or HDB did not give her the approval needed to rent out the unit.
Theresa would then find various excuses to avoid handing over the keys, such as blaming it on delayed renovation works and not getting the right approvals from HDB to rent out the unit.
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In some cases, she also convinced her victims to give her additional money, claiming she would reduce the rent in return, or that she needed the money urgently for a family member facing some "medical issues", said DPP Ng.
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One of Theresa's victims, a 33-year-old Indian national, had approached Theresa to rent the unit in December 2019, and paid four months of rent in advance.
This was on top of a security deposit as Theresa said she needed the money to pay her income tax “urgently”, said DPP Ng. In exchange, Theresa promised to reduce the victim’s monthly rental.
The victim told Theresa she feared never receiving the keys to the unit. However, Theresa assured the victim she would be able to move in on Jan 1, 2020, so the victim handed over S$5,800 and signed a tenancy agreement.
However, when the victim visited the unit on Jan 1, she found it to be "in an unsatisfactory condition, different from the photographs in the online listing," said DPP Ng.
After speaking to the victim, Theresa suggested they call off the tenancy agreement and handed a cheque for the deposit given. However, the cheque bounced.
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The victim made a police report on Jan 16, 2020. She also obtained an order from the Small Claims Tribunal to get the money back.
Of the S$63,341.40 she cheated her 14 victims, Theresa paid back S$20,174.40.
DETERRENCE FOR SCAMS NEEDED
Theresa was previously fined S$14,000 for failing to pay her domestic helper six months of pay.However, both the prosecutor and defence agreed that this should not be taken into consideration during sentencing as it was different from the cheating charges she faced.
DPP Ng sought a sentence of 16 to 20 months' jail, highlighting Theresa's long offending period between 2019 and 2023.
She noted that Theresa would pull at the heartstrings of her victims to convince them to hand over more money, such as by claiming a family member was facing medical issues and that she had committed over half of the charges while out on bail.
However, Theresa's lawyer pleaded for mercy, adding that Theresa is unable to reoffend when she is out of jail as her flat has been put out for sale.
District Judge Prem Raj said that with an increase in rental scams online, there is "clear public interest in deterring rental scams".
"The subject of the cheating offences are housing, not concert tickets or luxury watched. It is one thing to (cheat people of) a counterfeit luxury watch, but another thing to cheat a person of their housing," he said.
"The offences are clearly deliberate and premeditated... this is a case of a serial offender."
For each charge of cheating, Theresa could have been jailed for up to three years, or fined, or both.
