Teen crime ring leader jailed 46 months
SINGAPORE — At the tender age of 17, he was already operating at the second tier of a transnational crime ring that swindled businesses using counterfeit credit cards. Chew Seng Hong would facilitate the entry of runners from Malaysia into Singapore and their exit, and instruct them on the fraudulent transactions.
He once chided an accomplice for buying a pair of sunglasses worth S$830, that was too low in value and exchanged it for a bag worth S$2,410.
Between April 22 and May 7 this year, Chew and nine accomplices, all Malaysians, tried to make S$235,530 worth of fraudulent purchases and succeeded with nearly S$15,000 worth of items.
The bulk of the transactions involved luxury goods such as watches, bags and clothes from Louis Vuitton at ION Orchard and Ngee Ann City, Cartier at ION Orchard and Cortina Watch at Raffles City Shopping Centre. The cheapest item was a pair of pants from Forever 21 that cost S$33; the priciest was a S$14,260 Omega watch.
Chew would accompany his accomplices from Larkin Bus Terminal in Johor Baru to Singapore, where he would then distribute the counterfeit cards and coordinate their movements via mobile apps such as WhatsApp, the court heard yesterday.
Chew was arrested on May 7 after someone from the Louis Vuitton outlet at ION Orchard called the police. He was jailed 46 months yesterday for seven counts of abetment by conspiracy to possess forged valuable securities and 13 counts of abetment by conspiracy to cheat. Sixty-five other similar charges were taken into consideration.
Pressing for a deterrent jail term of 48 months, Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Jean Ting said Chew was more culpable than the others as he held a leadership role in the syndicate. She added that the offences were planned and premeditated. The syndicate members entered Singapore with the sole intention of committing a crime, and numerous offences took place over a short span of time. On May 3, for instance, 50 fraudulent purchases were attempted in four hours, between 4.28pm and 8.30pm.
Of the actual losses caused to the retail outlets, about 9 per cent (S$1,307) was recovered. It is not known if his accomplices have been caught.
Chew could have been jailed 15 years and fined for each charge of abetment by conspiracy to possess forged valuable security. He could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined for each charge of abetting to cheat successfully, and jailed up to two-and-a-half years and fined for each unsuccessful attempt of abetting to cheat. KELLY NG
