SINGAPORE, Aug 25 — Some 19 years after first being charged in court, a Singaporean man has finally been sentenced to seven months’ jail for cheating. 

When in his 20s, Wong Chee Kuan cheated about S$8,000 (RM24,368) from customers and his friend’s mother using several ruses.

After he was charged in court in 2001, he fled to Thailand shortly afterwards and only voluntarily surrendered himself to the Singapore immigration authorities earlier this year.

Wong, now 46, was dealt with today after pleading guilty to three cheating charges. Two other similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing. 

His offences

Wong first broke the law in 1996 while working as a sales executive at Auto Assist Global. 

The company offered a programme that involved unlimited car washes at the time, and also sold annual memberships for the Admiralty Resort & Country Club.

Wong met one victim on Jan 29, 1996. The man agreed to pay for both the programme and membership, filled in a form and handed it over to Wong, who submitted it to his office.

The next day, Wong arranged for the victim to meet him at Hock Hin Engineering to make payment.

Before the other man got there, Wong ordered a Sony CD player and four cassette players worth a total of S$1,390, then told the salesperson that a friend would pay for them.

The victim then arrived and handed over his credit card to pay for the car wash programme and country club membership. 

However, his card was charged for Wong’s items, which Wong later returned to collect.

The victim only realised the deception when Wong’s colleague contacted him for payment. Wong has since made full restitution.

He also cheated another potential customer of S$288 on March 1 that same year. 

The other man’s credit card had already been charged for the car wash programme, but Wong later went to his home and told him credit card payments took a long time to be processed. 

He said he had paid S$288 in cash to the company on the victim’s behalf and that the victim’s credit card payment would be voided. The victim then issued him a cheque for that amount.

He only realised what Wong had done after receiving his bank statement.

Court documents stated that Wong also misappropriated S$150 from his employer on Feb 18, 1996.

Four years later in 2000, Wong befriended Samuel Tan through the Internet. 

While the pair were at the Bugis Junction shopping mall on Nov 16 that year, someone called Wong on his mobile phone. Wong then told  Tan that his father was in hospital and asked for help in the form of S$5,000 in cash, in order to pay the hospital bill.

Later, Wong wrote a cheque for that amount in front of  Tan and his mother, who had agreed to lend Wong the money.

 Tan’s mother then withdrew S$5,000 at the OCBC branch at White Sands mall, handed it to Wong and banked in his cheque.

Two days later, she received an advisory from the bank saying the cheque could not be honoured as the linked account was closed a year ago.

When she contacted Wong, he refused to talk about the matter.

During investigations, he admitted to buying shares with the money. He had since partially repaid S$3,500 to  Tan’s mother.

For each cheating charge, he could have been jailed up to seven years and fined. — TODAY