SINGAPORE — A 34-year-old Singaporean man has been sentenced to 18 months and two weeks’ jail and fined S$30,000 (RM126,600) for stealing S$54,000 (RM227,880) from his bedridden friend’s Central Provident Fund (CPF) account.
According to Singapore’s CNA, Yu Mingyan accessed the victim’s Singpass — Singapore’s national digital identity platform used to log in to government services and authorise transactions — while visiting her in hospital, and transferred the money to himself.
The 62-year-old woman, his former colleague and close friend, was permanently warded at Gleneagles Hospital and unable to move or speak.
Between June and July 2023, Yu reportedly used her mobile phone on three occasions to withdraw S$30,000, S$20,000 and S$4,000, and later forged a police report to cover his actions when confronted by the victim’s niece.
The court also heard that Yu borrowed money from a loan shark in October 2023 and when he was unable to pay his debt, he went on to perform at least 16 bank transfers for the syndicate until his account was flagged by DBS and closed.
He was also said to have stolen S$197 from a petty cash box at Farrer Park Hospital in July 2024, where he was employed as a physiotherapist assistant.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jeremy Bin reportedly said the case involved a victim “whose vulnerability was complete”, while District Judge Eddy Tham described Yu’s actions as “highly egregious” and allowed him to defer his sentence until the end of the month.
