SINGAPORE: A man visited a Telegram group chat that was spreading stolen credit card details and used them to make taxi bookings and Burger King orders worth hundreds of dollars.
Serial criminal Muhammad Syawal Kamis, 32, was sentenced to six months and one week in prison on Monday (Feb 7).
He pleaded guilty to three counts of cheating and two others were taken into consideration.
The court heard that Syawal came across a Telegram group chat sometime before November 21, 2020, in which stolen credit card details were circulating.
He found a set of details published by the Bank of Oklahoma and decided to use it. He adds credit card details to his ComfortDelGro taxi booking account.
Between November 21, 2020 and December 23, 2020, Syawal booked 34 taxis and charged his credit card. He continued to book taxi rides until an error message popped up in his account.
The taxi company discovered fraudulent transactions worth S$562.91 and lodged a police report in February 2021.
A few weeks before that, Syawal linked stolen credit card details he retrieved from Telegram chat groups to his Burger King account. Between February 8, 2021, and March 2, 2021, he used multiple foreign credit cards to buy food from the fast-food restaurant on seven occasions.
An accountant working for Burger King in Singapore lodged a police report in early March 2021 saying the company had uncovered fraudulent transactions worth S$225.40.
In March 2021, Syawal also used the stolen credit card details to buy two S$28 worth of cartons from a company called Jaguar 3R Ventures.
Prosecutors are demanding a final verdict, noting that Syawal has been paid in full.
However, Syawal has a long list of convictions since 2003, when he received a suspended sentence for criminal breach of trust. Over the years, he has been convicted for crimes such as theft and criminal breach of trust, ranging from rehabilitation training to jail time.
He was last jailed in November 2018 on charges of cheating.
As a reprieve, Syawal asked for a shorter sentence, saying he has a daughter and a wife living in Indonesia. He said he was the only breadwinner and a house painter, but his business was affected by the pandemic.
He had to find temporary work to survive and said he had cooperated with police.
“At the moment I was arrested, I was very upset … and remorseful that this happened to me again. I was upset that I (didn’t) avoid crime,” he said.
Looking emotional, Syawal said he knew he was related to past beliefs, but said he was “actually turning a new leaf”.
“I know my freedom will be difficult for me to achieve and I will continue where I started, with my wife and daughter. Please give me a (lenient) punishment this time,” he said.
The judge told Syawal that the charges against him were serious, but said that while Syawal had been paid in full, he had a lengthy conviction in the past.
“For this particular sentence, jail time is mandatory. But if you go on like this, look at the number of years…if you go on this path, you’re looking for future corrective training,” District Judge Sean Ho said.
“I say this for your own good – corrective training, at least five years, at most fourteen years. Then there are more serious things, like preventive detention.”
He advised Syawal not to miss his two-year-old daughter’s formative years, and Syawal thanked him for his “words and reminders”.
Judge Ho allowed him to postpone his sentence until February 28.
