Father and son jailed for conspiring to cheat casino
By Shaffiq Alkhatib | Posted: 12 September 2011 1748 hrs
It was a simple scam that reaped $100,000 for a croupier and his two accomplices. Every time Lim Chee Leng (right), 34, and his father Lim Eng Chin (left), 57, came to change cash chips into smaller denominations, croupier Kent Oh Zhi Xiang would pass them an extra $100 chip. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
SINGAPORE: A father-and-son pair was sentenced to jail Monday for conspiring with a former dealer at Resorts Worlds Sentosa to swindle the casino of some S$100,000 worth of chips.
Thirty-four-year-old Lim Chee Leng, who is unemployed, and his father Lim Eng Chin, a 57-year-old cabby, will now have to spend 21 months behind bars for committing the offence.
They had worked together with the 33-year-old dealer, Kent Oh Zhi Xiang, to make off with the casino chips between July and November last year.
Oh, came up with the ruse, shared it with his friend, Lim Chee Leng who later roped in his father.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ruth Wong said that as part of the plan, the Lims would approach Oh to exchange either 500-dollar or 1,000-dollar chips for those in smaller denominations.
The then-dealer would hand them more 100-dollar chips than what they were entitled to.
DPP Wong said that the ill-gotten gains were equally shared between the three men.
But the trio was arrested in November that year after a casino pit manager received a tip-off about the scam from an anonymous punter.
Oh, who pleaded guilty to the offence in July, was sentenced to two years' jail.
DPP Wong had said that the Lims should receive similar sentences as the scam would not have succeeded without their involvement.
She also stressed that the trio shared their proceeds equally among them.
But the Lims' lawyer, Manoj Nandwani, pleaded for leniency, saying that his clients were "far from the masterminds of the operation".
He added that Oh recruited them for the "nefarious purpose" and they "succumbed to temptation".
Senior District Judge See Kee Oon noted that Oh was the brains behind the scam before sending the Lims to jail.
- CNA/cc
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