Former UOB, OCBC bank employee jailed for cheating 7 people of nearly S$2 million
File photo of Singapore dollars. (File photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman)
SINGAPORE: A former employee at two banks was given seven years' jail on Monday (May 10) for cheating seven people of almost S$2 million for fictitious wealth products.
Han Delong, 34, was given the jail term after pleading guilty to 27 charges, including criminal breach of trust as an agent and cheating. Another 67 charges were considered in sentencing.
The court heard that Han was a senior personal banker at United Overseas Bank (UOB) between August 2014 and December 2015, selling and marketing the bank's wealth products.
He resigned from UOB in December 2015 and joined Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) in March 2016. He was a premier relationship manager at OCBC until January 2017 and also sold the bank's wealth products.
Because of his positions at both banks, Han enjoyed "a close relationship" with his former clients and victims, court documents said.
Han began approaching former clients and promoting fixed deposits that were not actually offered by the respective banks. He cheated them into handing over sums ranging between S$20,000 and S$350,000 between February 2015 and May 2017.
Several of the victims filed police reports, including one of Han's former UOB customers, who transferred S$350,000 to his personal account in February 2016 even though Han no longer worked at UOB at the time.
Han issued the victim a forged letter printed with a UOB letterhead for the supposed UOB fixed deposit, and later issued another letter for a "renewal" of the fixed deposit.
The Commercial Affairs Department uncovered a total of seven victims who had been cheated by Han of S$1,969,000 in total for fictitious fixed deposits or investment products purportedly offered by UOB or OCBC.
Han dealt with the money in various ways, including transferring S$17,000 to his brother in February 2016 and transferring multiple batches of S$10,000 to a bank account he held jointly with his ex-girlfriend.
He also spent S$11,899 in a cashier's order payable to Premium Automobiles, a car dealer, and transferred about S$20,000 to Singapore Pools.
He used about S$350,000 he took from the victims to repay other victims. He has also since made restitution of S$275,000.
The judge noted his early plea of guilt and accepted that Han was remorseful and has made partial restitution.
