Woman jailed for bag, palm oil scams

A 44-year-old woman who deceived several of her victims into investing in Hermes Birkin bags, among other things, has been sentenced to five years and 10 months in jail.

Karen Tan Shin Ju, who faced 50 cheating charges, admitted on Monday to 12 counts involving six victims who were duped of a total of $468,000 between 2013 and 2015.

In all, she cheated eight people of $979,930 by making them believe they could invest in branded handbags and crude palm oil.

She has made partial restitution of $204,920.

Thirty-eight other similar charges were taken into consideration.

A district court heard that one of her victims, Ms Belinda Tan Saw Yin, 48, was conned of about $280,000.

PARTIAL RESTITUTION

Tan had made partial restitution of $95,000 to her.

Tan told her she was running a luxury handbag business.

She deceived Ms Tan into believing she was able to offer her an investment in handbags.

Ms Tan then gave her a total of $105,000. Tan also persuaded Ms Tan to invest $75,000 in the crude palm oil business.

In early March 2014, Tan told Ms Tan she had invested some money in a multi-level marketing trading platform.

She claimed the new management team was paying dividends to members who wished to withdraw from the scheme.

She said she had $150,000 with the platform and needed a processing fee of $30,000 to withdraw the amount.

Ms Tan then handed her the money to withdraw the $150,000, which was supposed to be the outstanding amount Tan owed her.

Tan could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined on each charge.

elena@sph.com.sg

This article by The Straits Times was published in The New Paper, a free newspaper published by Singapore Press Holdings.