Jail for man who cheated victims of more than S$70,000 by claiming to sell health supplements, iPhones

SINGAPORE: A man who claimed to be selling health supplements and iPhones to Carousell buyers cheated his victims out of more than S$70,000.

Sylvester See Sheng Sen, 29, was jailed 14 months on Monday (Mar 21) after pleading guilty to nine charges of cheating.

Another 17 counts of cheating and two counts of unlawful remote gambling were taken into consideration.

The court heard that See lied to four of his victims that he was selling Purtier Placenta health supplements, carried by local company Riway International.

The products could be bought using cash or points issued as part of Riway's membership plan. The points were valued at S$1 each and a 10 per cent administrative fee was deducted for conversion into cash, according to court documents.

Sometime in September 2020, See contacted the first victim and offered to sell Purtier products to him. Court documents did not specify how they knew each other.

See told the victim that he knew a senior member of Riway's programme who could provide 40 sets of Purtier products at a discounted price of S$30,000.

The victim was interested, and asked to pay half of the price in S$15,000 cash and the other half in 15,000 Riway points.

See made an arrangement with a third person who agreed to receive 15,000 Riway points in exchange for S$13,500, which was the amount in cash after the deduction of the administrative fee.

On Sep 21, 2020, the victim paid for the 40 sets of Purtier products by transferring S$15,000 to See's bank account and 15,000 points to the third person's Riway account.

He was told the products would arrive in four days at the latest, but he never received them.

"In truth, the accused did not intend to sell any Purtier sets to (the victim) and his representations to (the victim) were false," stated court documents.

See instead used the S$15,000 from the victim and S$13,500 he received from the third person for his personal expenses, debts and gambling.

He repeated this with three more victims, contacting them and offering to sell each of them five sets of Purtier products for S$3,500 in December 2020 and May 2021.

See also lied to five other victims that he was selling iPhones. In most of these cases, he browsed through Carousell and found victims who had indicated on the e-commerce platform that they wanted to buy iPhones.

One such offence took place when See was short of money in September 2021. He contacted a victim he found on Carousell and offered to sell the victim an iPhone 13 Pro Max phone for S$1,700.

The victim agreed to the purchase and transferred the amount to See's bank account. See again used the money for his personal expenses, debt and gambling.

The prosecution sought 13 to 16 months' jail for See. While the offender's method of cheating was "straightforward", he offended repeatedly, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Sunil Nair.

See was unrepresented. During mitigation, a written plea from his mother was read out in court by a Mandarin interpreter.

See's mother asked for leniency, saying that her son "did not grow up in a very good environment, that is, he grew up in a family where parents often argued due to the lack of finances".

She said that her son was troubled by his parents' divorce in 2019, and that "lack of supervision of his actions" led him to make mistakes.

In sentencing, District Judge Lee Lit Cheng told See: "You are not a young person who is not able to think for yourself. You are 29 years old. You need to decide for yourself what you want to do with your life."

She noted that See had a previous conviction. He was fined S$8,000 for stealing S$12,000 worth of valuables from his then father-in-law in 2019.

"I do not know whether you took the fine lightly," said Judge Lee, "but the offences you have committed this time round are serious, and they are many".