Source: Pakpoom Phummee / Shutterstock
A 67-year-old Singaporean woman has been charged with cheating an elderly man out of more than SG$200,000 (US$145,000) by implying the money was going to the nation’s founding father, the late Lee Kuan Yew.
Tan Hwee Ngo faces 169 charges of duping Tan Soy Kiang, 72, out of a huge sum of money over 14 years from 1999 until 2013.
Tan had told him the money was “for Mr Lee Kwan Yew”, leading the petrol station attendant to on one occasion withdrawing more than SG$53,000 (US$38,000) to hand over.
Lee Kwan Yew passed away in 2015 and is credited with bringing Singapore from “third world to first world in a single generation.”
Lee Kwan Yew during a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in 2009. Source: Russian Government
Under the Singaporean penal code, “cheating” is considered a serious criminal offence and is defined as “deceiving any person, whether or not such deception was the sole or main inducement, fraudulently or dishonestly induc[ing] the person so deceived to deliver any property to any person.”
Each month, Tan allegedly lied to the elderly man to get him to send her friend SG$500 (US$360), reported Yahoo News Singapore.
If convicted of cheating, Tan can face up to seven years’ imprisonment. She returns to court on June 22.
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