22—year—old jailed for theft and cheating 53 victims

SINGAPORE: A former sales assistant has been sentenced to 14 months’ jail for stealing and cheating 53 victims of over S$20,000.

Gary Sim Kaifeng, 22, admitted to 55 charges of cheating, one count of theft and one count of misappropriation of an ATM card.

Prosecution proceeded on 12 of the 57 charges.

The rest were taken into consideration for sentencing purposes.

The court heard that Sim had worked as a sales assistant at MACulture Pte Ltd, a computer shop and stole cash amounting to more than S$10,000 in March this year.

Between June and September 2012, he also developed a scheme that uses popular social networking site Facebook, to cheat users of their money.

Sim would set up several accounts using monikers like "Kimiyo Casing", "Jennifer Paradise" and "Redsnow Closet" to pose as online shops.

He would post pictures of goods he was to sell but did not have.

These included cameras, women’s clothing and camera casings.

The victims would make purchases and transfer the money to Sim, only to realise that it was a one—way transaction.

— CNA/lp