41-year-old Jim Tan Kuan Hui, who was unrepresented, pleaded guilty to three charges which involved some S$14,000. Five other similar cheating charges — also involving foreign nationals — were taken into consideration during sentencing.

Tan also admitted to stealing his girlfriend’s Omega watch, worth some S$2,900, as well as her pendant.

The court heard that Tan was introduced to a co-accused — 36-year-old Jeffrey Tan — by a person known only as Ah Lai.

Ah Lai had asked the former property agent to conduct an open house viewing of Jeffrey Tan’s HDB unit in Jurong East to potential tenants, as he owed money to licensed moneylenders. Ah Lai then hatched a plan for both men to collect deposits, advance rent and agent’s fees from prospective tenants who came to view the unit.

They would then tell the interested parties that the money would be returned to them if they did not succeed in securing the unit.

However, both men were aware that there was, in fact, no intention to rent out the unit, and that Ah Lai was not going to return the money received.

The ex-property agent would then get clients to view the unit, collect a deposit and advance rent from them.

For his role in the scam, he would pocket amounts of between S$100 and S$250 as payment.

The victims suspected that something was amiss when they found that there were other people already staying in the unit. They asked for a refund, but did not get their money.

In pressing for a deterrent sentence, Deputy Public Prosecutor Houston Johannus said that Tan had shown persistence and boldness in carrying out the scam, and that he had abused his position of trust as a property agent.

“There was deliberate deception and pre-meditation to swindle the victims, and the amount was not insignificant,” he added.

It is understood that Ah Lai is still at large, while Jeffrey Tan will be dealt with separately.

In passing sentence on Thursday, the District Judge also pointed out that Tan had “shamefully victimised guileless foreign nationals.”

He could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined for cheating. For theft, Tan could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 13 Feb 2014

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On Tuesday, the police had appealed for information on the man, identified as Dennis Ang Beng Kiat to assist with investigations.

In all these cases, the victims responded to flat rental advertisements placed in the newspapers.

The suspect, who was the owner of the flat, arranged with the victims to view the unit and thereafter collected deposits and rental advances for the unit.

After collecting the money, the suspect became evasive and remained uncontactable.

The suspect will be charged in court on July 30 with cheating.

If convicted he can be jailed up to 10 years and fined.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 29 Jul 2011

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The man was identified as Dennis Ang Beng Kiat who’s in his 40s.

He is slim-built and about 1.7 metres tall.

Police said at least three cases have been reported since November last year.

The victims had responded to flat rental advertisements placed in the newspapers sometime in mid-October.

The suspect would arrange with victims to view the unit and collect money ranging between S$2,700 and S$8,000 from them as deposit and advance rental for the unit.

After collecting the money, the suspect would then become uncontactable.

Anyone with information on this man is requested to call the Police Hotline at 1800-2550000.

Police also advised those renting one or two-room flats to do so directly from HDB.

Those renting bigger units should seek the services of a licensed estate or property agent.

Their identities and the validity of their licences can be checked against the Public Register on Estate Agents and Salespersons in the website of Council for Estate Agencies at http://www.cea.gov.sg.

No advance payment should be made until the tenancy is confirmed.

For HDB flats, you should request the flat owner to register your particulars with HDB immediately via My HDBPage instead of the usual seven days.

The Tenancy Agreement should also be stamped with the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS).

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 26 Jul 2011

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In all the cases, the 21 victims responded to rental advertisements placed in the Chinese newspapers between March 4 and 29 this year.

The suspect allegedly arranged for the victims to view the unit for rent and collected between S$500 and S$4,800 from them as deposits, telling them they could move in the following month.

After collecting the money, the man became un-contactable.

The suspect was arrested on Tuesday at about 7.15pm at HarbourFront.

He will be charged on Thursday in court with cheating.

He can be jailed up to 10 years and fined.

Meanwhile, the police advise members of the public to adopt the following crime prevention measures when seeking a unit for rent:

a) Visit the flat you wish to rent and ensure the person you are dealing with is the rightful flat owner. Request documentary proof of flat ownership that bears the flat owner’s name.

b) Insist that the owner registers the subletting with HDB within seven days from the subletting date.

c) Seek service from a licensed estate agent or registered salesperson (also known as property agent).

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 2 Jun 2011

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Their victims were cheated of advance rental payments and deposits amounting to about S$2,600.

Police said their investigations revealed that since early November, the male suspect had advertised his flat for rent on the Internet and newspaper.

Unsuspecting victims who responded to the advertisement were made to pay the suspect advance rental payments and deposits.

However, the suspect would become uncontactable after receiving the money.

Both suspects will be charged in Court on December 1 for cheating with Common Intention.

The offence carries a punishment of imprisonment for up to 10 years and a fine.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 30 Nov 2010

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The man, named “K Saravanan” in reports filed by the complainants, failed to return cameras and event equipment he had rented after paying a small deposit.

The suspect was arrested in York Hill on Monday afternoon.

Preliminary investigations revealed that he is believed to have been involved in at least six cases and had sold off all the rented cameras and equipment.

The suspect will be charged in court on Wednesday for criminal breach of trust.

If convicted, he faces imprisonment of up to seven years and could be fined.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 28 Sep 2010

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Ivan Tey, who is 35, owns a four-room flat in Jurong West.

Although he had rented the flat to other tenants, he approached different housing agents in October and November last year to look for prospective tenants to rent the flat to.

He found four different tenants and collected rental deposits from them.

The tenants later realised Tey had signed tenancy agreements with other tenants and found other tenants living in the flat.

They then separately made police reports.

Tey’s lawyer, Mr Joseph Chen, told the court that Tey committed the offences as he was in financial difficulty and had to support two young children.

He said Tey’s father is receiving treatment for cancer and urged the court to impose a shorter jail sentence.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 24 May 2010

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This is how it works: A conman, using a fake name, poses as a landlord with rooms for rent at low prices.

Click here to find out more!
He gives fake addresses of apartments in areas like Orchard and Chinatown.

He refuses to arrange for a viewing of the apartments, claiming that he is in Britain on internship and will be back here only by the end of next month.

He asks potential tenants to e-mail him a scan of their passport, and sign a contract e-mailed to them.

He asks them to wire a month’s rent and a security deposit to a Western Union account, and says he will post the keys to them. To reassure them, he sends images of the apartments and a scan of what he claims to be his passport.

A check with a thread on rental scams in Singapore on online forum scamwarners.com showed that at least 14 people have received such messages.

The scammer uses different pseudonyms, like Richard Willem Tibor, Jane Louise Millar and Tan Nee, and asks for sums of between $1,100 and $2,500.

Figures from the police show that, on average, one person falls victim to such rental scams every day. Last year, police received 324 reports of rental scams, down from 355 reports in 2008.

Mr Manuel Nacionales, 44, a Filipino systems analyst who has been working here for four years, almost became a victim.

He posted a request to rent a room on share-accommodation. sg, a website that links potential house- or flat-mates, in February this year.

Within a day, he got an offer of an apartment at 14 Scotts Road ? the address of shopping mall Far East Plaza.

In an e-mail sent from tantongnee@hotmail.com, the sender said he was a Singaporean named Tan Nee and could be called on +44-701-115-1047.

He asked Mr Nacionales to send a month’s rent of $700 and a security deposit of $400 to a Western Union account.

Mr Nacionales did receive a scan of the passport of a man called Tan Tong Nee, but did not wire any money after his colleagues advised him against it.

When my paper called the number posing as a potential tenant, the man identified himself as Tan Nee Long in a pseudo- British accent.

Pressed for the address of the rental apartment, he said that it was 202 Far East Apartment.

But a check with Far East Plaza’s residence showed that all its unit numbers are in four digits.

He could not arrange for a viewing of the apartment as he is doing a master’s programme in computer programming in London and has no friends in Singapore, he said.

He would send the keys only after the lease contract was signed and payment made.

“You have nothing to worry about, I’ll be sending you the contract and scanned passport of myself,” he said repeatedly.

When my paper asked him about forum postings about him being a scammer, he said: “No, I don’t do such things… People keep saying rubbish on the Internet.

It’s because I’m not gonna lease the room to them, that’s why they say I’m a scammer.”

He said that he was renting out the apartment on behalf of his mother, who owns it.

When told that he was speaking to my paper, he said “no problem”, but then hung up.

Scamwarners.com’s adviser, Mr David Jenson, 40, said one should never pay or send personal details to a stranger online.

Insist on seeing the title deeds, said Consumers Association of Singapore executive director Seah Seng Choon.

Check out the rightful owners of a property on the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore’s website, and look for properties via reputable websites like www.iproperty.com and www.propertyguru.com, said Mr Nelson Tan, a council member of the Institute of Estate Agents.

A police spokesman said tenants should request all parties to be present when signing tenancy documents, and should not pay large sums in cash.

Source : my paper – 12 May 2010

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In remand since July last year, Cheong faces 74 counts of cheating tenants of rent money and obtaining credit as an undischarged bankrupt.

When she appeared in the subordinate courts last October, the 40-year-old told the court she had wanted to plead guilty so as to fast track her sentence. She wanted to resume work as soon as possible and support her four children.

The single mother, however, decided to fight her case after her mitigation plea was rejected due to her insistence on maintaining innocence and a lawyer was subsequently assigned to her by the Law Society.

But in court on Tuesday, Cheong told District Judge Toh Yung Cheong that she would be representing herself as she had discharged the Law Society’s lawyer.

One of the victims, Mr Liu Guo, a Chinese national, told the court that Cheong had told him she was the owner of a flat at Geylang Bahru.

She told him that she was then pregnant and needed money, so Mr Liu withdrew S$3,000 from his bank account and gave it to her. He also transferred another S$4,000 from his bank account to hers.

However, when Mr Liu and his wife went to view the flat, he found out that the unit belonged to an Indian family. He telephoned Cheong but she told him he should inform her first if he wanted to view the flat again.

Refuting Mr Liu’s testimony, Cheong said that she had wanted to strike a rental deal with the flat owners, but Mr Liu jumped the gun and alarmed the owners.

The trial continues on Wednesday.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 4 May 2010

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Razieya Mohamed Ali was jailed for 11 months by a district court yesterday.

From November 2008 to February last year, the 34-year-old divorcee would post flats-for-rent advertisements on the Internet and invite foreigners working here to view the premises.

To entice them to sign the tenancy agreement after they had seen the flats, she would offer very low rents. She knew that the flats were occupied and by the time her victims found out, she and her accomplices would be long gone.

However, the police tracked her down.

She initially denied the charges and on the first day of the trial on Nov 30, her friend turned up instead. She claimed that Razieya had been raped by her former husband and was in no condition to attend court proceedings.

No police report or medical certificate was offered.

Assistant Public Prosecutor Santhra Aiyyasamy said yesterday that Razieya did not attend any police interview to substantiate the accusation.

Yesterday, the prosecutor asked for a deterrent sentence as Razieya had targeted foreigners, who were vulnerable to such scams.

Two of her accomplices were dealt with last year. Axley Alexander Ryan Shah, 40, a serial offender, was sentenced to six years’ jail while Letchimi Kasinathan, 52, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years.

A third accomplice, Arul Rajoo Michael Rajoo, 39, remains at large.

The court heard that in January last year, he hatched a plan with Razieya and Ryan to offer his leased flat for rent to foreigners and to cheat them of the deposit and rental. Their victims included Chinese, Filipino, Indian and Myanmar nationals.

Razieya also conspired with Letchimi, whose son stayed in a rented flat in Lengkok Bahru, near Jalan Bukit Merah. Without his knowledge, they offered it to Mr Jun Ojima, 43, a Japanese working here as a golf coach, for $1,000 a month on Jan 1 last year.

He handed over a deposit of $1,000 but two days later, he complained that the rent was too high and the two women lowered it to $700 on the condition that he pay up six months in advance.

Payment was made but before he could move in, Razieya cancelled the agreement.

Source : Straits Times – 11 Mar 2010

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