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Former car salesman jailed for cheating 2 customers of over $341k in total
Suey Seng Chuan committed the offences to feed his gambling habit. PHOTO: ST FILE
Former car salesman jailed for cheating 2 customers of over $341k in total
SINGAPORE – A sales consultant at an automobile firm, who duped a customer into transferring $278,800 to his bank account, was arrested in February 2024 and later released on bail.
But Suey Seng Chuan did not learn his lesson. Later that year, while working at another automobile firm, he used a similar ruse to cheat a second victim of $62,500.
The 39-year-old Singaporean, who committed the offences to feed his gambling habit and did not make any restitution, was sentenced to five years' jail on June 16 after he pleaded guilty to two counts of cheating.
Without revealing details, Deputy Public Prosecutor Joelle Loy told the court that Suey has a history of committing numerous property-related offences since 2010.
He started working for the first automobile firm in July 2020.
On Oct 6, 2023, a woman entered into an agreement with the company to buy a Mercedes-Benz car and paid $30,785 to the firm. The price of the vehicle was not disclosed in court documents.
She collected the vehicle later that month.
Suey later misled the Chinese national by instructing her to transfer $278,800 to a bank account as a 'partial payment' between January and February 2024.
The account belonged to Suey and the company had not authorised him to receive funds through it.
Investigations revealed that the woman was aware that the firm had an account with a certain bank, and this information was reflected on a sales agreement that she had signed.
However, Suey claimed that the company's account number had changed and duped her into making the transfer to his bank account instead.
Around Feb 19, 2024, an accountant at the automobile firm told the woman that she could have transferred money to Suey's bank account.
The accountant also alerted the police and officers arrested Suey later that month.
While out on bail, he started working for the second company in May 2024.
About two months later, a Singaporean man bought an Audi car from the firm. Its price was not stated in court documents.
DPP Loy said: 'The accused was required by the second company to generate a sales agreement for each customer using its computer system so that the customer's details would be internally logged.
'The accused decided to instead photocopy a sales agreement that had been prepared for an earlier customer, used correction tape to cover that customer's details, photocopied that document, and proceeded to fill in the (man's) details.'
After that, Suey instructed the man to transfer money to his bank account as a 'partial payment', claiming that the account belonged to the company. The man then transferred $62,500 to Suey's bank account.
On July 14, 2024, Suey admitted to a sales manager at the firm that he had cheated the customer.
Court documents did not disclose the reason behind his confession and the manager filed a police report the next day.
DPP Loy said that the second company ensured that the customer received the vehicle that he had purchased.
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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