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Nearly 2 years’ jail for woman who cheated restaurants of over $9,000 with fake PayNow screenshots
Published Nov 13, 2025, 01:30 PMUpdated Nov 13, 2025, 01:42 PM
Filipino Santos-Tumalip Maria Monalyn Bagaporo, 33, pleaded guilty to four charges, including cheating and theft.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
SINGAPORE - Between 2022 and 2025, a woman placed food orders totalling more than $9,000 at two restaurants by using fake PayNow screenshots.
Filipino Santos-Tumalip Maria Monalyn Bagaporo, 33, was sentenced to one year and 11 months’ jail on Nov 13 after she pleaded guilty to four charges, including cheating and theft.
Another three charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.
Court documents showed that Bagaporo first started ordering food from House of Seafood restaurant, located in Joo Chiat, in May 2022.
She would place her order directly on the restaurant’s website and select PayNow as the payment method.
Instead of transferring the money to the restaurant’s bank account, Bagaporo would transfer the exact amount of money to herself.
She would then take a screenshot of the transaction and use a photo editing app to edit the screenshot to reflect that the money had been sent to the restaurant for the order.
In some of the screenshots, she even edited the details of the sender account so it would appear as if she was making payments from different accounts.
The restaurant manager would review the screenshots to confirm that the payment amount and transfer date matched the order, but did not cross-check the restaurant’s bank records to verify if the payment had been received.
Bagaporo did this 35 times between May 2022 and August 2023, and cheated the restaurant of $3,891.75.
“She did so because she wanted to order food for her friends and impress them,” Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Jing Min told the court.
Her offences came to light only on Sept 2, 2023, when the restaurant manager reviewed the business’ bank statements.
DPP Tan added that Bagaporo has since made full restitution to House of Seafood.
Between June 2024 and May 2025, Bagaporo used the same modus operandi to make 24 separate food orders worth $6,167.52 at Baci Baci, an Italian restaurant located in Serangoon Garden.
She has not made restitution to the restaurant, the court heard.
Some time in 2025, Bagaporo also cheated Johwa Hair & Living, a hair salon located at the Capitol Kempinski Hotel, by purchasing a hair treatment voucher, valued at $381.50, with a doctored PayNow screenshot.
On June 8, she visited the hair salon to redeem the voucher.
She tried to purchase a second hair treatment voucher on the same day as well, but was denied when the director of the salon realised that the payment had not been made.
He also realised that the salon had not received payment for the first voucher.
The salon’s employees repeatedly reminded Bagaporo to make payment over the following weeks, but she would give excuses for why she could not pay.
The salon director lodged a police report in July.
On Nov 27, 2024, Bagaporo visited Giant supermarket at Block 348 Bedok Road, where she stole 31 items worth $738.76.
The items included snacks, meat, vegetables and personal care items.
She entered the supermarket with a trolley bag and two tote bags, and paid for five other items at a self-service kiosk.
A supermarket staff member noticed Bagaporo behaving suspiciously and asked her to follow him into his office, where he checked her bags and found the stolen items.
The prosecution asked for a jail sentence of between 23½ months and 27 months for Bagaporo, highlighting that her flagrant and recalcitrant offending behaviour must be met with a commensurate sentence.
For cheating, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years, fined, or both.
For theft, an offender can be jailed for up to seven years and fined.
