Man jailed for cheating 10 people of almost $270,000
He knew they had lost large sums of money.
But Shafie Osman and three others still duped at least 10 victims of almost $270,000 by posing as officers of the law and using forged Supreme Court and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) documents.
Their victims included a food and beverage worker, 52, and a Malay kueh seller, 70, earning less than $3,000 a month.
After pleading guilty to six counts of cheating, Shafie, 38, was yesterday jailed for four years.
Three other similar charges were taken into consideration.
His offences occurred between April and August 2015. The court heard the victims had invested in companies such as Desa Amanah (DAL), but failed to get dividends and/or have their capital returned.
Shafie and an accomplice, Noorfauziah Yusof, 40, previously worked at DAL, so they could tell co-conspirators Annie Sahlawaty Mohd Salleh, 46, and Nur Khairunnisa Mohd Ridzwan, 32, how much each victim could pay and if they were easily deceived.
The four played various roles, including court officers and an "undercover lawyer", and used the forged documents to convince victims they had to pay a fee or deposit to recover their investments.
Shafie had earlier helped introduce some of the victims to real lawyers, so his presence at these meetings was deliberately orchestrated to give assurance, Deputy Public Prosecutor Eric Hu told District Judge Samuel Chua.
To conceal their identities, the four used mobile phone lines that were not registered in their own names to communicate with the victims.
DPP Hu said Shafie and his accomplices watched as the victims struggled to pool money to pay them, with one 64-year-old victim pawning her jewellery.
No restitution has been made to the 10 victims.
Shafie still has an unrelated drug charge pending, while Noorfauziah's case is still being heard in court.
Annie was earlier sentenced to six years and six months of corrective training on 213 charges, while Khairunnisa was jailed for two years.
DAL has been listed on the Investor Alert List - a list of unregulated persons who, based on information received by MAS, may have been wrongly perceived as being licensed or authorised by it - since 2015.- ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY DAVID SUN
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