Taiwanese actor cheated at Changi Airport
Three other Taiwanese also fell for ruse by fellow countryman
He was about to fly home to Taiwan on April 21 when a fellow Taiwanese man approached him for help.
Actor Lee Chih-cheng, better known as Chris Lee, loaned him $400 before realising that he had been cheated, reported Chinese evening daily, Lianhe Wanbao.
The actor, who was in Singapore to film a local drama series, was one of the four people Chou Wen-liang, 47, cheated at Changi Airport Terminal 1 in April and May.
He cheated his victims – all Taiwanese nationals – of cash totalling $2,450 in all.
Chou was jailed yesterday for six months after pleading guilty to two counts of cheating.
Two other cheating charges, including the one involving Lee, were taken into consideration during sentencing.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Victoria Ting said that Chou entered Singapore on April 8 to gamble at casinos here.
To earn a fast buck, he went to the airport 21 days later and approached Mr Hsu Kai-ping at around 12.20pm, claiming that all of his money had been stolen by three Americans.
Chou also claimed that the airport police could not trace the thieves as their faces could not be identified from a closed-circuit television footage.
ASKED FOR LOAN
DPP Ting said: "According to the accused, the airport police informed him that he had to pay $400 in order to obtain a new set of travel documents that would enable him to leave Singapore.
"The accused also claimed to need another $400 to purchase airplane tickets to return to Taiwan."
Chou then asked Mr Hsu for a loan of $850 and his bank account details.
Chou also said that his wife in Taiwan would then help to repay the loan by transferring the money over.
He also gave Mr Hsu a telephone number that supposedly belonged to him.
Mr Hsu fell for his lies and loaned him the cash.
The court heard that Chou then went to the Resorts World Sentosa casino at around 5pm that day.
Mr Hsu later realised that he had been cheated when the money was not returned and the telephone number that Chou gave was invalid.
Using a similar ruse, Chou cheated another man, Mr Chen Jung-cheng, of $800 cash at around 9.40am on May 5.
On the same day, Chou was approaching two other travellers in the arrival hall about two hours later when Mr Hsu, who had returned to the airport that day to lodge a report, spotted him.
Mr Hsu told a customer service officer about the cheat and the airport police were alerted.
DPP Ting said that Chou had made no restitution and gambled away $2,050 of his ill-gotten gains.
Chou, who was not represented by a lawyer, told the court in his mitigation yesterday that he has realised his mistakes.
For each count of cheating, he could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined.
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