Man used Microsoft Word to forge $25k bank transaction to sugar baby
After a 24-year-old woman rejected his proposal for a sexual arrangement, Liaw Jin Yi disguised his voice over a phone call with her, and pretended to be a former sugar baby to vouch for himself.
He later used Microsoft Word to create a fake document which showed a transaction of $25,000 from his Bank of America account to his victim’s bank account.
The pair eventually had sex.
On Tuesday, Liaw, 42, was sentenced to jail for three years and six months that the prosecution proposed, after he pleaded guilty to a charge of dishonestly obtaining services. Two other forgery charges were taken into consideration during his sentencing.
Deputy Public Prosecutor David Menon said Liaw became acquainted with the victim in January 2020 after he sent her a message on Instagram.
Using the name Trevor in his interactions with her, he propositioned the victim to be his sugar baby and solicited sexual services in exchange for a monthly stipend of between $8,000 and $15,000.
The victim, who had not entered into a similar arrangement before, declined his offer.
On July 17, 2020, Liaw tried again, increasing his offer to $22,000 a month. He then gave the victim one of his own contact numbers, claiming it belonged to his former sugar baby, in a bid to convince the victim of his credibility.
While posing as his former sugar baby, he had also tried to obtain nude pictures from the victim.
The victim then met Liaw to discuss his proposal, and he promised to increase the stipend to $25,000 if she booked a hotel room for their next meeting, saying he would transfer her the first payment before that.
“Unemployed and financially constrained, the victim agreed to this proposal,” said DPP Menon, who added that Liaw never intended to transfer any money to the victim and that he did not have enough money to do so.
On July 25, 2020, Liaw sent a photo of the forged bank transaction to the victim via Telegram and used a function on the app that caused the image to disappear after a few seconds to conceal his deception.
The victim repeatedly checked her bank account throughout the day, but the purported transfer was not reflected.
After she expressed some hesitance about meeting him, Liaw responded by rebuking her for lacking trust in him. He implied that she would run off with his $25,000, and complained that she had inconvenienced him as he had rearranged appointments to accommodate their meeting.
Liaw promised the victim that he had already transferred $25,000 to her. Believing this, she booked and paid for a hotel room at Aqueen Hotel.
The same day, the pair met at the hotel where the victim provided Liaw with sexual services, including intercourse.
Liaw did not pay the victim for the services, nor did he reimburse her as promised for the condoms he wore during sex at her insistence.
DPP Menon said the incident traumatised the victim and negatively affected her relationships with men.
Liaw’s lawyer S.S. Dhillon said that his client, who has a seven-year-old daughter, was remorseful and suffered from depression.
Liaw could have been jailed for up to 10 years, fined or both for dishonestly obtaining services.
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