Woman gets 43 months’ jail for forgery, cheating and CBT
SINGAPORE — A woman who forged an ex-boyfriend’s signature to withdraw money from their joint bank accounts, and later embezzled money from her company to fund her new lover’s gambling habits and their lavish lifestyle, was sentenced to 43 months in prison yesterday.
Zuo Jing, a 30-year-old Singaporean, faced 28 charges for forgery, cheating by conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and cheating by personation. Out of the 28 charges against her, the court proceeded on 10, while the other 18 were taken into consideration.
In 2007, Zuo opened a restaurant with her ex-boyfriend, Mr Alvin Toh Chi Sian, a 32-year-old chef. The two closed the restaurant after the relationship turned sour and they broke up. They then filed a civil suit against each other to divide the remaining money in their three OCBC Bank accounts.
In April last year, Mr Toh lodged a police report against Zuo after she forged his signature and drafted an authorisation letter to close three of their joint accounts, withdrawing S$46,317.77 in March 2012.
Zuo was then charged in court for forgery and cheating by personation.
Before she could appear in court to plead guilty, she was slapped with further charges for criminal breach of trust and cheating by conspiracy in another case.
At around the same time, Zuo and a Singaporean man named Ivan Lim Chin Ping, 30, became lovers. Lim had a gambling addiction and constantly pressured Zuo for money to fund his habit. She also paid for his car insurance, road tax and shopping, and gave him money to repay his debts.
In late 2013, the two decided to use cheques meant for payment to vendors contracted by Riverton Group (S) — the company Zuo was working for — for personal gain. At the time, Zuo — who worked in the finance department — was solely in charge of preparing cheques for the vendors.
Apart from misappropriating the cheques meant for vendors, Zuo also deceived the company’s signatories into signing further cheques when payments were not required.
Lim would help cash in the cheques and the couple spent the money on gambling, shopping for luxury items, eating at fancy restaurants and a trip to Europe.
Zuo cheated and misappropriated a total of S$449,011.51, including the amount she took from her joint accounts with Mr Toh.
