SINGAPORE: A cleaner cheated a friend into believing that she could process job and work permit applications for a company she was deployed at for a fee.
As a result, the victim was duped into handing over S$5,000 (US$3,700), only to find that the job openings were fake.
Jayanthi Subramaniam, a 31-year-old Malaysian, was jailed for six weeks on Tuesday (Dec 5) after pleading guilty to one count of cheating.
The court heard that Jayanthi had been working in Singapore on a work permit when she got to know a 31-year-old Indian national through TikTok in 2021.
While the two never met in person, they spoke through phone calls, texts and voice messaging.
In August this year, Jayanthi ran into financial difficulties and was unable to repay her loans.
She devised a scheme to cheat her friends through fake job opportunities. At that time, she was deployed as a cleaner at DHL Singapore.
On Aug 29, Jayanthi told the man that she was working for DHL Singapore and claimed that there were job openings for foreign workers there.
She offered to submit the work pass permit applications, even though she was not employed by DHL Singapore and there were no such job opportunities. She also offered to submit work pass applications.
The man contacted another friend, who recommended two people for the job.
Jayanthi then requested for S$5,000 each to process the work pass and job applications. The man became suspicious due to the large sum of money involved.
Despite his misgivings, Jayanthi managed to convince him that the job opportunities were real by sending him photos and videos of DHL Singapore’s premises.
She said she would accept S$2,500 from each person as a deposit. Eventually, the man arranged for S$5,000 in total to be transferred to Jayanthi’s bank account.
Jayanthi then tried to ask for more money but she stopped after the man requested for formal documentation. She subsequently began to give excuses about the supposed job openings.
The man lodged a police report on Oct 1.
Jayanthi was arrested three days later. By then, she had used the money to pay her debts and for personal expenses. She has since made restitution of S$5,000.
In mitigation, she told the court that she was a single mother supporting two young children and an ailing mother on dialysis.
She asked to be sent home and promised not to make “such a mistake again”. She also begged not to be sent to jail.
District Judge Cheng Yuxi said that the amount involved was “not insignificant”.
“When the victim expressed doubts, you even took photos of the DHL office premises to buttress your deception,” noted the judge.
The judge took into account the fact that Jayanthi faced only one charge, pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, had a clean record and had made full restitution.
For cheating, Jayanthi could have been jailed up to ten years and could have been fined.