SINGAPORE: A 38-year-old woman has been jailed after cheating another woman of 1kg of gold bars via a fake investment scheme purportedly offered by DBS Bank.
Rachel Ann Fernandez was convicted on Thursday (Feb 6) and sentenced to seven months' jail after she persuaded her victim to participate in a fake gold investment scheme purportedly offered by the bank, the police said in a news release.
AdvertisementAdvertisementIn the incident, which happened in March 2016, the victim handed over ten 100g gold bars to Fernandez on the understanding that they would be deposited with DBS Bank.
She was promised monthly returns of 4 per cent of the value of the gold bars across a three-month investment period, after which the gold bars would be returned to her.
However, she only received returns for the first month, said the police. Fernandez also did not return the gold bars at the end of the investment period.
To "allay her concerns", Fernandez provided a screenshot of an e-mail purportedly from Piyush Gupta - DBS Group's chief executive officer - which said the gold bars could be collected in November 2016.
AdvertisementAdvertisementHowever, subsequent investigations revealed no such investment scheme by DBS Bank.
Instead, Fernandez had pawned the gold bars the day she received them from her victim.
She pleaded guilty to one charge of cheating, while a further charge of using a forged electronic record as genuine was taken into consideration for sentencing.
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