SINGAPORE: A man transferred a total of S$54,000 (US$42,000) from his bedridden friend's Central Provident Fund (CPF) account to himself while visiting her in hospital, then forged a police report to support his claim that he was not the perpetrator.
Yu Mingyan, a 34-year-old Singaporean, was sentenced on Monday (Sep 8) to jail for 18 months and two weeks. He was also fined S$30,000, and will serve a month's jail in default if he cannot pay the fine.
He pleaded guilty to two counts under the Computer Misuse Act for misusing his friend's mobile phone to authorise the transfers using her Singpass application, and two charges for assisting a loan shark and misappropriating cash.
Another two charges were taken into consideration.
The court heard that the victim was a 62-year-old female Singaporean who was Yu's former colleague and close friend.
She was bedridden due to undisclosed medical issues and could not move or speak. She was permanently warded in Gleneagles Hospital.
At the time, Yu was in debt. He visited the victim in hospital on multiple occasions and could guess her phone and mobile application passwords as he was a close friend of hers.
Over three occasions in June and July in 2023, Yu visited the victim and used her phone to access her CPF account. He then withdrew money from the account to her bank account before transferring the sums to himself.
He transferred S$30,000 on the first occasion, S$20,000 on the second and S$4,000 on the third instance.
The victim's niece noticed the transactions and questioned Yu about them.
He lied and claimed not to know how they had occurred. He claimed that he could not repay the victim, as he was also a victim of "whoever was causing these unauthorised transactions".
In October 2023, he used a real police report that his mother had previously made and edited it to seem like he had filed a police report in August 2023 about the transactions.
He then sent the forged police report to the victim's niece to placate her.
He became uncontactable in January 2024 after further questioning and the victim's niece lodged a police report in October 2024.
In October 2023, Yu took a S$600 loan from an unlicensed moneylender but could not keep up with the agreed repayments.
He agreed to perform other services in the form of facilitating bank transfers instead, and set up a new bank account for this purpose.
In November 2023, Yu made at least 16 bank transfers on behalf of the loan shark, receiving transfers and performing outward transfers as directed.
One of the inward transfers involved a 44-year-old woman, who lodged a police report saying she had been making loan repayments for unlicensed loans to bank accounts, including Yu's.
Yu continued making transfers for the loan shark until his account was flagged for suspicious transactions by DBS on Nov 14, 2023 and closed.
Yu also pocketed S$197 from a petty cash box at Farrer Park Hospital in July 2024 while he was working there as a physiotherapist assistant.
He spent it on himself and told the police that he had taken the money "out of habit".
On Monday, District Judge Eddy Tham questioned Yu about whether he was going to compensate his close friend for the funds from her CPF.
He said he was financially unable to.
"Are you not working?" asked the judge.
Yu said he was, but said he was not able to put aside money to repay the victim "mainly because (the money) is for my family".
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jeremy Bin later added that the investigation officers had looked at Yu's financial records and concluded that he would not be able to afford any compensation, so he was not asking for it to be made.
Mr Bin sought at least 16 months' jail and a fine of S$30,000 for Yu, saying that the case involves a victim "whose vulnerability was complete".
The offence was particularly egregious as Yu was her close friend and should have been caring for her, but instead he stole from her, said Mr Bin.
The abuse of technology in this case is not just any technology but the Singpass system built by the government to safeguard the money of Singapore citizens and residents, he added.
Other than the S$54,000, Yu had also taken undisclosed sums of money from the victim in April 2023, but had paid her back for this, Mr Bin said.
Judge Tham told Yu that it was "highly egregious" for him to take advantage of "a close friend who has fallen in a worse state than you".
"Instead of helping your friend, you have betrayed her trust by helping yourself to her CPF monies to alleviate your own problems," he said.
Yu had claimed that the victim had about S$166,000 left in her account based on what he saw, but the judge said this was unverified.
He said Yu had "no qualms" in taking the money the victim needed for her care and committed forgery to hide the offence.
He allowed Yu to defer his jail term to the end of the month in order to settle his work and family matters.
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Yu Mingyan, a 34-year-old Singaporean, was sentenced on Monday (Sep 8) to jail for 18 months and two weeks. He was also fined S$30,000, and will serve a month's jail in default if he cannot pay the fine.
He pleaded guilty to two counts under the Computer Misuse Act for misusing his friend's mobile phone to authorise the transfers using her Singpass application, and two charges for assisting a loan shark and misappropriating cash.
Another two charges were taken into consideration.
The court heard that the victim was a 62-year-old female Singaporean who was Yu's former colleague and close friend.
She was bedridden due to undisclosed medical issues and could not move or speak. She was permanently warded in Gleneagles Hospital.
At the time, Yu was in debt. He visited the victim in hospital on multiple occasions and could guess her phone and mobile application passwords as he was a close friend of hers.
Over three occasions in June and July in 2023, Yu visited the victim and used her phone to access her CPF account. He then withdrew money from the account to her bank account before transferring the sums to himself.
He transferred S$30,000 on the first occasion, S$20,000 on the second and S$4,000 on the third instance.
The victim's niece noticed the transactions and questioned Yu about them.
He lied and claimed not to know how they had occurred. He claimed that he could not repay the victim, as he was also a victim of "whoever was causing these unauthorised transactions".
In October 2023, he used a real police report that his mother had previously made and edited it to seem like he had filed a police report in August 2023 about the transactions.
He then sent the forged police report to the victim's niece to placate her.
He became uncontactable in January 2024 after further questioning and the victim's niece lodged a police report in October 2024.
TOOK LOAN FROM LOAN SHARK
In October 2023, Yu took a S$600 loan from an unlicensed moneylender but could not keep up with the agreed repayments.
He agreed to perform other services in the form of facilitating bank transfers instead, and set up a new bank account for this purpose.
In November 2023, Yu made at least 16 bank transfers on behalf of the loan shark, receiving transfers and performing outward transfers as directed.
One of the inward transfers involved a 44-year-old woman, who lodged a police report saying she had been making loan repayments for unlicensed loans to bank accounts, including Yu's.
Yu continued making transfers for the loan shark until his account was flagged for suspicious transactions by DBS on Nov 14, 2023 and closed.
Yu also pocketed S$197 from a petty cash box at Farrer Park Hospital in July 2024 while he was working there as a physiotherapist assistant.
He spent it on himself and told the police that he had taken the money "out of habit".
On Monday, District Judge Eddy Tham questioned Yu about whether he was going to compensate his close friend for the funds from her CPF.
He said he was financially unable to.
"Are you not working?" asked the judge.
Yu said he was, but said he was not able to put aside money to repay the victim "mainly because (the money) is for my family".
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jeremy Bin later added that the investigation officers had looked at Yu's financial records and concluded that he would not be able to afford any compensation, so he was not asking for it to be made.
Mr Bin sought at least 16 months' jail and a fine of S$30,000 for Yu, saying that the case involves a victim "whose vulnerability was complete".
The offence was particularly egregious as Yu was her close friend and should have been caring for her, but instead he stole from her, said Mr Bin.
The abuse of technology in this case is not just any technology but the Singpass system built by the government to safeguard the money of Singapore citizens and residents, he added.
Other than the S$54,000, Yu had also taken undisclosed sums of money from the victim in April 2023, but had paid her back for this, Mr Bin said.
HIGHLY EGREGIOUS: JUDGE
Judge Tham told Yu that it was "highly egregious" for him to take advantage of "a close friend who has fallen in a worse state than you".
"Instead of helping your friend, you have betrayed her trust by helping yourself to her CPF monies to alleviate your own problems," he said.
Yu had claimed that the victim had about S$166,000 left in her account based on what he saw, but the judge said this was unverified.
He said Yu had "no qualms" in taking the money the victim needed for her care and committed forgery to hide the offence.
He allowed Yu to defer his jail term to the end of the month in order to settle his work and family matters.
Continue reading...