HE seemed a kindly uncle, a fatherly figure, always smiling. But he was also always plotting to swindle the people who trusted him.

He was, his victims said, a glib-tongued sweet-talker, and a Class-A smooth operator - a serial cheat with a history of cheating convictions.

Tor Tin Kau, who was better known to his victims as William Tor, pleaded guilty to three counts of cheating, one count of forgery, and one count of criminal breach of trust last month.

Tor, whose age was not revealed in court documents, would pose as a salesperson from various renovation companies and collect advance payments for renovation jobs.

His victims were unsuspecting homeowners, other salesmen and even renovation companies.

For his crimes, Tor was jailed four years on 1 Apr.

Prison life is not new to Tor; he has been in and out of jail since 1979 for similar charges.

Mr Sam Tan, a manager with one of the companies cheated by Tor, said: 'He deserves a longer sentence. Prison is like holiday camp to him. He is unremorseful. He hasn't learnt his lesson at all.'

Mr Tan, 42, the operations manager of renovation company Success Forever Construction and Maintenance Pte Ltd, said Tor had joined his company as a freelance salesman in 2004.

'He had been introduced by an ex-convict we had hired. They had known each other in prison,' Mr Tan recalled.

Mr Tan said his boss' stance was to hire ex-convicts to give them a chance at starting over.

Tor joined his company as a freelance salesman and was given company namecards.

His job entailed collecting cheques for payment or deposits from clients.

Mr Tan said that during that period, his company was one of the contractors authorised to change the aluminium rivets to stainless steel rivets for windows of Housing Board flats.

Tor had offered to bring in a team of his own friends as salesmen to boost sales by going door-to-door. They were to be paid on a commission basis.

Mr Tan said: 'Initially, the sales did go up, and a lot of invoices were issued. But I noticed the amount of money handed in by Tor did not tally with the amount invoiced to clients.

'For the first few weeks, he brought in about 70 per cent of the amount invoiced. Such payments were in the form of cheques made to our company. But after two months, the amount got even less.'

Mr Tan questioned Tor on the discrepancies but Tor told him that his sales team had not handed him the money collected from clients.

So Mr Tan called Tor's sales team one by one personally. And it turned out that the salesmen had already handed the cash from their clients to Tor and had yet to be paid the commissions he had promised them.

Mr Tan said the amount that Tor had taken in cash was $16,000.

Towards the end of 2004, Mr Tan confronted Tor, fired him, and threatened to lodge a police report.

MORE CHANCES

'The problem is, you can't tell that William is a conman. He looks like a kindly old uncle, always jovial and smiling,' Mr Tan said.

Tor promised to return the money and paid back about $2,000 in instalments.

'At first, we decided to let the matter rest, since we thought he was an old man. We wanted to give him a chance,' Mr Tan said.

But Tor stopped paying and started avoiding calls from the company. So the company lodged a police report against him in 2005.

'The worst part was, even though he knew we had reported him to the police, he continued to call us and offer to bring in sales. But we no longer trusted him,' Mr Tan said.

In 2006, Tor approached the company about a renovation contract with one house owner.

Mr Tan said: 'Tor claimed that we could take his commission (on the contract) as payment for the money he owed us. But we didn't believe him anymore.'

The offer was rejected, but Tor went on to use the company's name to sign a contract with 64-year-old houseowner Lau Yee Tiong and collected $5,000 from Mr Lau.

Mr Tan said: 'We found out only when the houseowner lodged a police report and we were questioned by the police.'

The boss and owner of Success Forever, MrJack Oei, 43, said: 'The money we lost is nothing much compared to the damage to our company's reputation.'

Mr Tan admitted that he was completely taken in by Tor at first. 'He is a real wolf in sheep's clothing,' he said.

'He was very good at winning everyone's affection and trust. He would be very helpful to colleagues, offering to run errands, and often bought us food.

'He was smiling all the time, and it was probably because he knew he was taking so much money from us.'

Mr Oei said: 'It's a pity that Tor did not treasure the chance we gave him to turn over a new leaf.

'I still believe in giving ex-convicts a chance. We cannot judge all ex-convicts by one bad sheep.'

Another company who had a brush with Tor was Premiere Design and Renovation, which hired him in 2006. Tor pulled off a similar scam as its freelance salesman.

Mr James Sim, 36, the company owner, said: 'He was a really good salesman - but he was an even better conman.'

'He was so glib, he managed to convince the clients to issue cash cheques, which he never handed to the office.'

Tor took $8,000, which Mr Sim later discovered.

ALARMING

Tor returned the money, and was fired.

In sentencing Tor, District Judge Toh Yung Cheong noted that Tor was involved in a 'fairly elaborate' plan to cheat his victims, and there was no evidence of restitution made.

The charges, the judge said, indicated that Tor was a serial offender, and he had victimised nine people.

The judge also noted that after Tor had been charged in court on 7 May 2007, he managed to raise bail and his case had been adjourned several times upon request.

But the judge found it 'most alarming' that Tor took this as an opportunity to go on a crime spree, resulting in fresh charges.

PROTECT YOURSELF

Here are some precautionary measures homeowners can take when dealing with renovation companies' salesmen:

- Always call the office number on the namecard to check if the salesman is indeed an authorised representative of the company.

- Always ask for an official quotation from the company with its original company letterhead, rubber stamp, and signature of either the manager or director.

- Ask for an official order form once the contract has been signed.

- Never make payment to the salesman by cash or cash cheque. Always make the cheque out to the renovation company.