SINGAPORE, Jan 6 — Promising foreign currency at attractive exchange rates, as well as investment plans that gave lucrative returns, an unemployed Singaporean woman fleeced 15 victims of more than S$3.85 million (RM12 million) over three years.

Today, Kalimahton Md Samuri, 55, pleaded guilty to 20 charges of cheating offences and was sentenced to 12 years in prison — her second brush with the law for cheating offences. Another 49 charges were taken into consideration.

One of the six scams the undischarged bankrupt cooked up was a foreign exchange "investment” scheme, where she would claim to offer favourable exchange rates for foreign currencies like the Malaysian ringgit, Indonesian rupiah and Saudi riyal, only to make off with the money.

In another scam, Kalimahton told a taxi driver that she had inherited a large amount of cash, gold and jewellery from her late husband and father. She claimed that the inheritance was being flown into Singapore from Indonesia but was held back by customs officials due to unpaid taxes and customs duties.

She told her victim he could get a cut of her inheritance if he "invested” by paying off the taxes and duties. The taxi driver paid her S$120,000 in cash.

Other scams included a rice investment scam, where Kalimahton induced her victims to pay her for premium rice, and a SG50 Commemorative investment scam where victims were told they would make a commission when they exchanged their cash notes into special SG50 commemorative notes with her.

The money Kalimahton made away with was spent on gambling, repaying loans taken out from unlicensed moneylenders, and her own personal expenses. She had been declared bankrupt since 2003.

This is not her first brush with the law. In 2000, she was jailed for 78 months on eight counts of criminal breach of trust offences.

In those previous scams perpetuated between 1997 and 1999, she had posed as a member of the Brunei royal family and tricked a series of jewellery shops into releasing a large amount of items to her, which she pawned. She also tricked one pawnshop owner into releasing some of the pawned items without proper redemption and re-pledged them at other pawnshops. She used the money collected to fund her extravagant lifestyle.

In pushing for a stiff sentence for Kalimahton for her latest offences today, deputy public prosecutor Thiam Jia Min said one aggravating factor was the "staggering amount” involved in the scams.

"Most of the victims led a modest life and were cheated of their life savings,” Thiam said.

And while some victims had their monies returned to them, she argued that the accused’s motivation of returning the money was not due to remorse, but "to gain their trust (by making them believe they made viable and legitimate returns), so that she can scam them of more money”.

Moreover, Thiam said the money returned to some victims was money cheated from other victims.

In "perpetuating a whole web of (carefully devised) scams”, the prosecution said it was clear that Kalimahton "hasn’t learnt from her past offences”.

Arguing for a lighter sentence of between eight and nine years for her client, defence lawyer Cheryl Ng said Kalimahton had been cooperative with the authorities and was remorseful about her crime.

But this did not hold water with the district judge. Calling the scams "audacious”, District Judge Jasvender Kaur said in her sentencing remarks that it was clear Kalimahton "had set out to prey on unsuspecting members of the public”.

Even with around S$1.14 million returned to the victims, the remaining amount cheated off them was "substantial”, the judge added, also noting that the accused had a "prior record of serious dishonesty”.

Sitting on a wheelchair, Kalimahton looked crestfallen as the sentence was read out. Later, as she spoke with defence lawyers Amarick Gill and Ng, she wept a little, her soft voice shaking.

Kalimahton’s sentence will be backdated to November 21, 2015, when she was first remanded. — TODAY