Jail for woman who tricked housemate into lending $400,000
A woman had multiple documents forged, including bank and lawyers’ letters, so she could appear wealthy in a ruse to get her housemate to lend her money.
As a result, her housemate lent her more than 4.6 billion rupiah (S$393,400) and $10,000 from March to April 2022 on 72 occasions.
On Feb 6, Indonesian Tjheng A Liem, 47, was sentenced to 20 months’ jail.
She had pleaded guilty in November 2023 to five charges of using a forged document as a genuine one.
Tjheng has since made restitution of more than 4.6 billion rupiah to the victim.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Edwin Ho said the male victim, 61, and Tjheng got to know each other as they were living in the same unit in People’s Park Complex in Chinatown.
They became friends, and Tjheng told the victim that she had excess money from selling a flat as well as selling shares she owned in a logistics company.
She lied that she owned a condominium unit and that she had had her bank accounts frozen by the authorities as she had overdue taxes.
The prosecution said Tjheng told these things to her housemate, whom she believed to be gullible, so he would think that she was wealthy.
Tjheng subsequently asked him to lend her money as she had personal debts to settle and needed to help her daughter who she claimed was facing trouble with the authorities in Batam.
The victim believed her lies and was willing to help his housemate, hoping they would eventually do business together, said the DPP.
To sustain the victim’s belief that she was wealthy so he would continue to lend her money, Tjheng instructed an individual in Indonesia known as “Lukito” to help her forge multiple documents.
It was not stated in court documents if legal action has been taken against Lukito.
Between January and April 2022, Tjheng instructed Lukito to forge multiple documents, including bank and lawyers’ letters and a title deed to prove that she owned a condominium unit.
She then showed these documents to the victim to convince him that she was wealthy.
After the victim lent her money on multiple occasions, she constantly made excuses to delay returning the funds she owned him, said the prosecutor.
As the accused constantly came up with excuses to delay repayment, the victim began to suspect that she was cheating him. The victim made a police report in September 2022.
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