Jail for scam mastermind who cheated 55-year-old woman of S$130,000

SINGAPORE — Chen Yongqi and her accomplices hatched an elaborate scam to cheat a 55-year-old woman into believing that her son was ill.

The victim, Singaporean Soon Siew Leng, was then asked to place her valuables and cash in a plastic bag and hand it to them, in order to earn the trust of an old man who could help her.

When she turned up with the plastic bag, the group of Chinese nationals swopped it for a similar bag containing plastic bottles of water and Pokka Green Tea packet drinks.

Ms Soon was cheated of a total of S$130,000.

For masterminding the scam in 2015 and making a second attempt this year, Chen, 30, was jailed two years and nine months on Thursday (April 25).

She pleaded guilty to one count of abetting by conspiracy to cheat and dishonestly induce delivery of property, and another count of criminal conspiracy to cheat and dishonestly induce delivery of property.

Four accomplices who tried to pull off a second scam this year were each jailed a year, after they pleaded guilty to one count of criminal conspiracy to cheat and dishonestly inducing delivery of property. They were: Liu Hongwei, 47, Lu Huixing, 45, Chen Feixiong, 51, and Huang Qiufeng, 47.

Three of Chen’s accomplices from 2015 — Lu Tuqing, Zou Yaxue and Wu Shanghua — had fled to China and only Chen was arrested after she returned four years later.

No restitution has been made by Chen or her accomplices to date.

THE MODUS OPERANDI

In December 2015, Lu, then 41, approached Ms Soon at Redhill MRT Station.

Lu asked Ms Soon, who is now 59, if she knew of an old man living in the area who had a medicinal plant called “red nu shu”. Lu told Ms Soon that her daughter was sick and needed the plant for treatment.

Soon after, Zou, then 45, joined the conversation and claimed to know where the old man was. Ms Soon was unaware that Zou was Chen’s accomplice.

Zou then led them to Block 76A, Redhill Close, where Chen was and she introduced herself as the granddaughter of the old man. She told Ms Soon that the old man knew that Ms Soon’s son was more ill than Lu’s daughter.

She then told Ms Soon that if she wanted the old man to help her, Ms Soon would have to hand all her valuables and cash in a plastic bag to meet him. She assured Ms Soon that her valuables would be returned to her.

Worried about her son’s health, Ms Soon went home to get S$100,000 worth of jewellery and valuables, as well as local and foreign currencies amounting to about S$10,000. She also withdrew S$20,000 from the bank.

Placing everything into a plastic bag, Ms Soon returned to Block 76 Redhill Close where Chen was waiting.

Once there, Ms Soon gave the plastic bag to Zou. Chen then instructed Ms Soon to wash her hands and call out to her son to go home.

As Ms Soon was doing so, Chen swopped the plastic bag with a similar bag containing bottled water, packet drinks and newspapers. Chen then gave the plastic bag to Ms Soon and told her to open it only after 49 days.

However, Ms Soon opened the bag when she got home and realised that she had been cheated. She then made a police report.

After Ms Soon left Redhill Close, Lu gave the bag to Wu and the quartet returned to Shenzhen, China, where they split the loot.

Chen returned to Singapore in March this year with four other Chinese nationals — Liu, Lu, Huang and Chen Feixiong — with the intention of repeating the scam in the Sembawang area.

The plan was to deceive senior citizens into believing that they had an “evil aura” surrounding them and to get them to hand over valuables and money for a ritual to be performed to eliminate the aura.

However, they were unable to find any potential victims and made preparations to leave for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on March 8.

Chen and her accomplices were arrested by the police a day before their planned departure.