Over 2 years' jail for man who worked with wife to cheat her then-boyfriend of $220k

Straits Times

4 days ago

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Eric Ong Chee Wei (left) was sentenced to jail for engaging in a conspiracy with his wife, Felicia Tay Bee Ling, to cheat her then-boyfriend of $220,000.
SINGAPORE - A man was sentenced to two years and four months' jail on July 24 for engaging in a conspiracy with his wife to cheat her then-boyfriend of $220,000 via a fake property investment scheme.
Eric Ong Chee Wei , who has made restitution of $10,000 to the victim, Mr David Tan, was also ordered to pay a compensation of $210,000.
Ong, 50, will have to spend an additional 105 days behind bars should he fail to fork out the amount.
His wife, Felicia Tay Bee Ling , 49, who had acted on his instructions, was sentenced to two years and a month in jail on July 24.
At the time of the offence, Ong did not know that Tay was having an affair with Mr Tan, 48.
Mr Tan, however, was aware that Ong was Tay's husband.
Ong and Tay
had each pleaded guilty to a cheating charge in June . Court documents did not disclose if they are still married to each other.
The two offenders were each offered bail of $40,000 on July 24. They are expected to begin serving their sentences on Aug 18.
In earlier proceedings, Deputy Public Prosecutor Kiera Yu told the court that Tay was a housewife, while Ong worked as a property agent from 1999 to 2006 before turning to odd jobs.
Tay met Mr Tan in 2010, and they started their affair in 2014.
Around September 2015, Ong conspired with Tay to deceive Mr Tan into paying supposed 'security deposits' involving the purported purchase of condominium units as investments.
In reality, the two offenders knew that there were no such units for sale.
Acting on Ong's instructions, Tay told Mr Tan that she had 'investment opportunities' – she could help him buy seven units at Residences @ Emerald Hill from the developer at discounted rates due to the 'poor property market'.
She also claimed that the units could be resold at higher prices and promised Mr Tan that each investment would purportedly yield high returns within three months.
In reality, six of the units that he was supposedly buying did not exist at all, while the seventh was not available for sale.
The prosecutor said that Tay also sent handwritten records of the 'investments' to him, adding: 'However, no official documents on the sale and purchase of the units were ever provided.'
Mr Tan had received only screenshots of option-to-purchase (OTP) forms Tay sent him for the seven units.
The forms were purportedly issued through a salesperson under real estate company OrangeTee, who did not know that Ong had used the forms to commit cheating.
Mr Tan then handed to Tay $220,000 in total as 'security deposits' over seven occasions from September to November 2015.
Tay promised Mr Tan that he would receive profits of more than $1.7 million when the units were sold.
But around January 2016, Mr Tan sensed that something was amiss when he received no investment returns.
He confronted Tay about the matter, but she did not give him any concrete answers.
Mr Tan and Tay broke up in March 2017.
The victim finally reached out to OrangeTee on Dec 11, 2019, and the company told him that none of the transactions listed on the OTP forms were legitimate.
Mr Tan made a police report the next day and officers arrested the two offenders in June 2022.