Woman scammed 10 people of S$880,000 including lover who cheated parents of life savings for her
Three men fell in love with Joceyln Kwek Sok Koon, who scammed at least 10 victims of more than S$880,000.
Stock illustration of a love scam. (Photo: iStock)
Lydia Lam
12 Oct 2023 02:13PM (Updated: 12 Oct 2023 02:20PM)
SINGAPORE: A married woman managed to get three different men to fall in love with her and transfer her large sums of money, with one of them cheating his parents into handing over their life savings.
In total, she cheated 10 people of more than S$880,000 (US$646,000).
Even when she was charged and her trial was pending, 49-year-old Joceyln Kwek Sok Koon managed to cheat her husband's ex-colleague of S$338,600, lying to him that she could help him obtain permanent residency in Singapore.
Kwek pleaded guilty on Thursday (Oct 12) to multiple charges of cheating. She was remanded and listened morosely to the proceedings with a mask over her face, appearing haggard.
The court heard that Kwek got to know her lover and co-accused Lai Sze Yin in July 2016, when the 24-year-old man delivered a parcel to her home.
Even though Kwek was married and had two children, she began dating Lai. To conceal her real identity from Lai's family, she created a persona she assumed - a young woman named Rachel Lam Xin Yi who was studying in the National University of Singapore.
She never met Lai's family but would talk to his parents over the phone, gaining their trust that way and buying them gifts.
She managed to get Lai to trick his parents and younger sister into handing over a total of S$150,000 on the guise of investments or a car loan.
Lai's mother lodged a police report in October 2018 saying her son's girlfriend had cheated her entire savings and had been uncontactable for over a year.
Kwek also cheated her own godmother, a 73-year-old woman, by asking for jewellery for cleaning.
When Kwek's godmother handed over more than 50 pieces of jewellery, mostly family heirlooms, Kwek pawned them all off for S$48,250 and used the money to settle her personal debts.
Kwek was declared bankrupt in January 2014. When her godmother repeatedly asked for the jewellery back, even pleading with her, Kwek would invent excuses.
She only handed over some jewellery that was not her godmother's and a few thousand dollars after being threatened with a police report.
THE OTHER VICTIMS
Other than Lai, Kwek also cheated two other men who fell in love with her.One of them was a 35-year-old Certis Cisco employee who got to know Kwek when she sent an email query to Certis Cisco.
They began chatting and the victim fell in love with Kwek, even though they had never met or seen each other over video call.
Kwek never liked him and was really perpetuating a love scam on him, court documents stated.
To keep up the charade, she sent photos to the victim that she passed off as hers. The victim did a reverse Google image search and realised the pictures were of a Korean blogger.
Despite confronting Kwek and arguing over it, the victim continued his relationship with her.
Kwek managed to get this man to transfer a total of about S$48,000 to her between September 2017 and March 2019.
When the victim realised in June 2021 that he had been scammed, he lodged a police report. The police asked Kwek to head down to the station for statement recording, but Kwek kept rescheduling her appointments, with one of them even being on the first day of her trial for the offences linked to Lai's family.
Kwek returned about S$1,900 to this victim in April 2021.
HER HUSBAND'S EX-COLLEAGUE
While Kwek was out on bail, she targeted her husband's ex-colleague, a 66-year-old British man.The victim used to work with Kwek's husband at a bank and befriended Kwek.
In March 2020, after she had been charged with various offences, Kwek approached the Briton and lied that she needed money to claim her inheritance.
She assured the man that she would return him the money after receiving the payout, engaging lawyers to draft letters to lend credence to her claims.
She also set up a chat group over the alleged legal matters and posed as a male lawyer to deceive the victim.
In total, Kwek cheated this victim of S$338,600 via various ruses, including lying that she had leukemia.
After learning that the victim wanted to apply for permanent residency for himself and his family, Kwek lied to him that she could help act as his sponsor to fund the application.
She did so to buy herself more time to repay the money that she already owed him. She instructed him not to contact the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) or Manpower Ministry or else he would be immediately deported.
In January 2021, the victim lost his job at the bank and his employment pass was cancelled. He was supposed to fly back to the United Kingdom but stayed in Singapore after Kwek assured him that his PR application had been approved.
She told him not to take up any other job offer and again warned him against contacting ICA or MOM.
When the victim asked for proof of her claims, Kwek forged documents from ICA. No restitution was made to this victim, who fell into debt as a result of Kwek's actions and whose mental health deteriorated.
He also faced investigations by ICA for overstaying.
The third man who fell in love with Kwek was a 39-year-old salesman who worked at a piano shop.
He got to know Kwek after approaching her as a company representative on WhatsApp hoping to attract potential customers.
Kwek portrayed herself as a wealthy person, showing the victim pictures of "her property". As she bought expensive abalone from the victim's friend in bulk, the victim believed that she was rich.
Kwek sent a photo of another person to the victim, claiming it was her. The victim realised this was a photo of another person, because Kwek accidentally sent him the full screenshot of the profile.
Despite this, the victim continued his romantic relationship with Kwek that had began in May 2021.
Kwek kept asking him for money for various reasons, and he sent her the money as he was in love with her, the prosecutor said.
In total, he was cheated into sending her about S$103,710, taking loans from his mother, sister and friends.
He fell into financial difficulties after quitting his job as he believed Kwek when she gave him a job offer that never materialised.
He did not suspect that he was being cheated as Kwek cultivated his trust and would keep up the pretence by sending him expensive gifts.
It was only after a fellow scam victim contacted him that he realised the truth. Kwek stopped responding to his messages and calls on Apr 18, 2022 when her bail was revoked and she was remanded.
Kwek made restitution of about S$10,000 to this victim.
PROSECUTOR SEEKS LENGTHY JAIL TERM
Deputy Public Prosecutor Phoebe Tan sought 91 to 100 months' jail for Kwek, or about seven years and seven months' jail to eight years and four months' jail.She said Kwek preyed "on all and sundry", making use of the internet to prey on strangers, showing no signs of stopping.
While Kwek had no previous convictions, she should not be treated as a first-time offender, considering "she's a serial cheat who had scammed at least 10 known victims of a substantial amount of money", said Ms Tan.
Not only did Kwek have "no qualms" about lying to her victims, she also grossly abused the trust Lai's parents had reposed in her.
When trial dates were fixed, she did not turn up and appeared to be "hospital-hopping" in order not to turn up in court, said Ms Tan.
She had multiple victims who believed her lies, with some of them not knowing they were lied to until others contacted them.
"This shows how much of a manipulative liar and skillful liar she was," said the prosecutor, adding that the guilty plea date was hard to fix partly because fresh reports kept coming in from different victims.
Defence lawyer Raphael Louis asked for more time to respond to the prosecution's submissions.
In
The judge adjourned sentencing to a later date.
Lai was sentenced to 15 months' jail in June 2021 for his role in cheating his family. At the time, he promised his parents that he would work extremely hard to return all their life savings.
