Charity scam: 2 relatives get jail

Two sisters-in-law collected more than $1,000 using donation receipt booklets purportedly for the Willing Hearts charity for the underprivileged.

However their intentions were anything but charitable. The books were fake, with Santha Devi Lingam getting them printed in Malaysia to escape detection from the authorities in Singapore.

The 35-year-old spent two weeks in May going door to door, cheating donors of $855.

Her relative Kamisah Shaik Mohamed, 35, conned 17 victims out of $170.

They were caught when a resident telephoned Willing Hearts to check on the donation drive. The charity called the police, who arrested both women at a block of flats in Ang Mo Kio.

Santha was yesterday sentenced to six months in jail and Kamisah to two months.

District Judge Lee Poh Choo said the duo had "taken advantage of the public generosity and kindness and gone blatantly door to door to cheat".

The court heard that Santha came up with the idea of pretending to be a donation collector after seeing such volunteers at a shopping centre.

She then roped in Kamisah.

They decided that their "cover" should be the Willing Hearts charity.

Santha then used a computer at an Internet cafe in Ang Mo Kio to design the receipt booklets and a donation collector certificate in each of their names.

She then got a printing firm in Malaysia to print 50 booklets of 100 receipts each bearing the Willing Hearts' logo and address.

Working separately, each would show the donation collector certificate and identify herself as a volunteer.

Once a donation was received, they would list the donor's details in the butt of the receipt booklet and issue the forged receipt.

Both pleaded guilty yesterday to cheating their victims while Santha also admitted to forgery.

Arguing for a stiff sentence, Deputy Public Prosecutor Cheryl Seah pointed to the "high level of premeditation involved in the scam" with its forged receipts and certificates.

Pleading for leniency, defence counsel Mohan Das Naidu said the duo were unemployed, and needed money desperately for their families.

Santha's husband is jobless and the couple have three children, aged three, four and 11.

Kamisah, who is about four months pregnant, has four children, aged three, nine, 10 and 16. Her husband is a tow truck driver.

Each woman could have been jailed for up to three years and fined up to $10,000.

khush@sph.com.sg

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