Jail for man who scammed boyfriends and mentally ill woman, filed false rape reports, forged S$1 trillion cheque
SINGAPORE — While under investigation for a series of serious offences, including cheating several users on gay dating application Grindr and forging a cheque for S$1 trillion in his mother’s name, Jerald Low Jing Yong decided to make his boyfriend take the blame.
SINGAPORE — While under investigation for a series of serious offences, including cheating several users on gay dating application Grindr and forging a cheque for S$1 trillion in his mother’s name, Jerald Low Jing Yong decided to make his boyfriend take the blame.
To that end, Low lied to the police for six months that his boyfriend had coerced him into breaking the law by physically and sexually abusing him repeatedly.
His final act, which led to his remand earlier this month, was to forge a medical certificate to avoid pleading guilty in court and serving an imprisonment term.
On Wednesday (March 16), the 27-year-old was sentenced to five years and seven months’ jail, a fine of S$1,800 and a 12-month driving ban.
He admitted to 17 criminal charges, mostly of cheating and obstruction of justice. Another 35 other charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.
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Prosecutors told the court that he had devised a web of lies for three years, tricking several victims — many of whom he met through social media and dating apps — into signing up for mobile line contracts and causing more than S$150,000 in losses.He had even filed a notice of marriage with one victim, who suffered a relapse of her bipolar disorder and was admitted to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for two months after seeing his true colours.
POSED AS KOREAN MAN TO ‘BUY’ PROPERTIES
The court heard that Low deceived several victims, including a National University of Singapore student, into signing up for mobile phone lines.He reassured the student that he would pay the bills and claimed that his twin brother would take over payment, as he was purportedly going to South Korea for an exchange programme.
When the student tried to get him to repay, Low hired a law firm to intimidate him and lied to his lawyers that the student owed him S$12,000.
In early 2018, Low realised that he could issue cheques to his own bank accounts to cause a temporary increase in his account balance, though he knew the cheques would not clear. He planned to show his ledger balance to those around him.
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In April 2018, he stole his mother’s cheque book and issued himself a cheque for S$1 trillion (S$1,000,000,000,000) by forging her signature on it. Due to the abnormally large value, OCBC bank made queries into his mother’s account and was informed that it was closed.The cheque was not processed and an OCBC representative made a police report.
On other occasions, Low issued cheques payable to himself to entities such as the Central Provident Fund Board, Housing and Development Board, and Bishan-Toa Payoh Town Council. None of them were ultimately cleared.
Then, in May 2019, Low came up with a plan to issue cheques to obtain options to purchase real estate. He planned on using the options to boast to friends that he could afford expensive properties.
He took on the persona of a wealthy Korean, "Park Joon Hyung", who had inherited a large of money and also dyed his hair to look the part.
He viewed various properties with the help of a property agent and issued 13 cheques valued at S$2.1 million for the option to purchase fees, despite knowing that he could not honour the payments.
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The cheques were similarly not cleared and the properties were eventually released for other potential buyers.Low was also involved in a traffic accident in 2018. He then used the other driver’s particulars to fraudulently register for an account with Tribecar, and beat a red light while driving, among other incidents.
He also registered for an account with car-sharing service BlueSG and did not pay about S$1,000 in rental fees. He did not have a valid driving licence at the time.
ROPED WOMAN INTO HIS SHELL COMPANY
In October 2018, a 35-year-old woman responded to Low’s advertisement for a job at Fitness Tea — a shell company that Low had set up. He then tricked her into signing up for StarHub mobile line contracts.The day after they met, he agreed to register a marriage with her. She also got her brother to join the company.
When she told her brother that she would be promoted to a manager, his wife said that Low might be a scammer.
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The victim then suffered a relapse of her bipolar disorder and was admitted to IMH. A report stated that some of her symptoms included “delusions of love”.Low also began dating a 31-year-old man he had met on Grindr, lying that he owned two units at an upscale Riversails condominium in Upper Serangoon and had inherited money. He got the victim to sign up for more mobile line contracts and to “invest” in a “private SGX fund”.
The victim borrowed about S$22,000 and never received any money in return.
Low met and got into relationships with other men through an online forum, similarly passing himself off as wealthy. He got one of them to sign a dozen car sales agreements first, lying that he could pay for the vehicles later.
The victim was soon informed of a message circulating among car dealers, warning that he and Low were going around buying cars with cheques that did not clear.
FILED 5 FALSE POLICE REPORTS
Eventually, Low met Desmond Poon Jun Yee, 22, through Grindr and they began dating. Low lied that he was a director and owner of bubble tea franchise R&B Tea.He knew that he was under investigation and would be facing criminal charges, so he managed to persuade Poon to take the fall.
In September 2020, he filed a false police report alleging that he committed the offences on Poon’s instructions since 2018. He further claimed that Poon had threatened to harm him and his family if he did not take sole responsibility, and said that Poon had abused him physically many times.
In November 2020, after Low had been charged in court, he made another false report that he was “mentally and physically tortured” by Poon.
In March last year, he then convinced Poon to insert an element of sexual assault into their lies. He told the police that Poon had raped him more than 15 times.
Low perpetuated his lies by saying that he handed all the mobile phone sales proceeds to Poon.
On April 21 last year, Low finally admitted to lying about the rapes, but maintained that Poon had asked him to cheat people. He was also asked to go for a sexual assault examination due to his allegations.
Poon came clean about his lies that same day. He has been charged with obstructing justice and his case is still pending.
On Jan 21 this year, Low was set to plead guilty but decided to forge a medical certificate (MC) to excuse his attendance. He edited a previous MC issued to him and sent it to his lawyer who submitted it to the court.