25 months' jail for woman who worked with her husband to cheat her lover of S$220,000

SINGAPORE: Acting on her husband's instructions, a woman cheated her lover of S$220,000 (US$172,400) in a property investment scam.

However, the husband did not know that his wife was having an affair with the victim, and the victim did not know that he was being cheated until years later.

On Thursday (Jul 24), a district court sentenced 48-year-old Singaporean Felicia Tay Bee Ling to 25 months' jail.

Eric Ong Chee Wei, 50, was given 28 months' jail and ordered to pay the victim S$210,000 in compensation. He had earlier made restitution of S$10,000 to the victim, Mr David Tan, 48.

If Ong cannot pay the compensation, he will have to serve another 105 days' jail in default.

THE CASE

The court heard that Ong and Tay have been married since 1999. For seven years from then, Ong worked as a property agent. 

Thereafter, he did odd jobs while Tay was a housewife.

Tay met Mr Tan sometime in 2010, and they began having an extramarital affair in 2014. The affair lasted until 2017.

Ong knew of Mr Tan as his wife's friend. However, he had never met him at the time and did not know about the affair. 

Mr Tan, however, knew that Tay was married to Ong.

In around September 2015, the married couple conspired to deceive Mr Tan. They agreed for Tay to tell Mr Tan about opportunities to invest in condominium units for significant profits.

They intended to get Mr Tan to pay security deposits for condo units, purportedly at Residences @ Emerald Hill, when they knew there were no such units for purchase.

From September 2015 to November 2015, Tay acted on her husband's instructions and told Mr Tan about the investment opportunities.

Tay said that developers were willing to offload unsold properties at a discounted rate to agents, due to the poor property market.

She claimed that her husband was offered the units as he used to work in property, and said she could help Mr Tan buy seven condo units directly from the condominium developer at a discounted rate.

She said the units could be sold at a higher price and promised high returns within a period of three months from the date of each investment.

Six of the units did not exist at all, and there were no such investment opportunities.

Ong then gave his wife hard copies of option-to-purchase forms he had obtained from another property agent from real estate company OrangeTee.

This agent was unaware of the misuse of the forms.

Tay then filled out forms for the seven units and sent screenshots of them to her lover over WhatsApp, so he would believe that the money he had handed to her was part of security deposits to buy the units.

VICTIM HAD IMMENSE TRUST FOR WOMAN

The prosecutor said Mr Tan believed Tay's ruse as he had "immense trust" in her because they were in a relationship, and because he thought Ong worked in the property industry.

Mr Tan gave a total of S$220,000 in cash to Tay over seven occasions from September 2015 to November 2015.

In return, Tay promised him a profit of S$1.7 million when the units were sold.

In around January 2016, Mr Tan became suspicious, as he had not been given any investment returns. He confronted Tay but did not get any concrete answer.

To appease him, Tay prepared an "IOU" document with information from her husband and with his signature.

This was done to convince Mr Tan that Ong would pay him the money owed.

In the document, Mr Tan used his brother's name – Kelvin Tan – instead of his own, as he did not want to risk exposing his affair with Tay to Ong.

The IOU document stated that Ong would pay Kelvin Tan S$1.9 million upon the sale of the seven units – comprising the S$220,000 from Mr Tan's "investment" and the profit of S$1.7 million.

The couple never paid Mr Koh any of the promised sum.

Eventually, Mr Tan realised that he was not getting his money back. His relationship with Tay ended in March 2017.

It was only more than two years later, in December 2019, that Mr Tan asked OrangeTee about the property agent stated in the forms provided to him, and learnt that none of the transactions he had made were legitimate.

Mr Tan lodged a police report on Dec 12, 2019, and Ong and Tay were arrested in June 2022.

Ong made restitution of S$10,000 to Mr Tan in October 2024.

The prosecution said the amount involved in this case was significant, with minimal restitution to date. The offence was also premeditated, with elaborate steps taken to conceal it.

However, the prosecutor said Tay's culpability was slightly lower than her husband's, as she acted on his instructions throughout the scheme.

The prosecutor sought a compensation order of S$210,000, with a jail term of six months in default if Ong could not pay the money.

The penalties for cheating to induce the delivery of a valuable security are a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine.