5 days ago
Repeat offender who cheated 61 victims of over $310k in total gets 2½ years' jail
Arivalagan Muthusamy was under a remission order when he committed some of his latest offences. PHOTO: SHIN MIN DAILY NEWS
Repeat offender who cheated 61 victims of over $310k in total gets 2½ years' jail
SINGAPORE – A man who was released from jail in December 2022 did not learn his lesson and devised a scheme to con multiple contractors, cheating 61 victims of more than $310,000 in total.
Court documents stated that Arivalagan Muthusamy had committed earlier offences – forgery for the purpose of cheating in 2013 and computer misuse offences in a syndicate which was involved in gold and cryptocurrency scams in 2021.
He was under a remission order when he committed some of his latest offences. As part of the order, he was supposed to keep himself out of trouble from Dec 17, 2022 to March 28, 2023.
However, the unemployed Singaporean went on to cheat multiple victims , including firms dealing with flooring works and air-conditioning units, before he was arrested on July 4, 2023. He was charged in court the next day.
On June 4, the 40-year-old, who has made no restitution, was sentenced to 2½ years' jail after he pleaded guilty to 21 counts of cheating involving nearly $154,000 in total. The 21 companies were each cheated of between around $5,400 and $10,000.
More than 40 charges linked to remaining victims and ill-gotten gains were considered during Arivalagan's sentencing. He must also spend an additional 88 days behind bars after breaching the remission order.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Maximilian Chew told the court that in late 2022 , Arivalagan learnt of scams conducted against contractors and decided to commit similar offences.
As part of his ruse, he would contact a contractor, claiming that he needed certain works to be carried out at certain premises, usually a commercial building like a shopping mall.
He would then redirect the victim to a 'contact person', purportedly someone with the building management of such properties.
After that, Arivalagan would falsely present himself as a representative of the building management and ask the victim to pay a sum of money, for items such as security deposits. He would provide bank account details for such a purpose.
To execute the scams, Arivalagan needed multiple mobile phone numbers to contact the victims. He also needed multiple bank accounts to receive the scam proceeds.
To get them, he approached two men – Thomas Sng Jian Wen, 35, a stall assistant, and Ahammed Md Riaz, 29, a construction worker – and asked them to procure bank accounts from th eir own contacts.
DPP Chew said that Sng, a Singaporean, and Ahammed, a Bangladeshi, agreed to be part of the plan, knowing that the bank accounts would be used to perpetrate scams. Court documents did not disclose the outcome of the cases involving Sng and Ahammed.
DPP Chew said that Arivalagan cheated two companies of $10,000 each.
In February 2023, he contacted one of them, claiming that he required epoxy flooring and painting works at the Capital Tower building in the Tanjong Pagar area.
He told the victim to pay $10,000 to the 'building management of the premises' for a purported 'permit-to-work' and provided a bank account number. The victim complied.
Arivalagan used a similar method to cheat the other victims.
On June 4, DPP Chew asked the court to sentence Arivalagan to an aggregate sentence of 2½ years' imprisonment, with an additional sentence of 88 days behind bars.
Stressing that the offences were planned and premeditated, he added: 'The accused also roped in Thomas and Riaz to procure bank accounts belonging to others to receive the proceeds of the scams.
'Not only there is a group element to the offences, such money mule activities are also additional offences themselves and which warrant the imposition of a strong deterrent sentence.'
For each count of cheating, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.
Shaffiq Alkhatib is The Straits Times' court correspondent, covering mainly criminal cases heard at the State Courts.
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