Over a period of six years, a 42-year-old woman in Singapore transferred more than S$210,000 to a man she believed she would be marrying.
Turns out, the man was lying to her — he was living a lavish lifestyle and staying with another woman.
On Thursday (30 May), the court ordered the man to pay the woman S$210,050 in damages, with interest from the date of the lawsuit.
According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), 42-year-old Ms Lee Mei Lan met Mr Derrick Ng Jing Yuan in 2008 and believed they were in a romantic relationship from 2010 to 2020.
Source: freepik. for illustration purposes only.
From 2014, Ms Lee gave Mr Ng about S$650 every week thinking the 41-year-old man would be her husband and that his father would be her father-in-law.
Mr Ng apparently told Ms Lee that he had quit his job and needed money to pay for his father’s medical bills.
Earning about S$3,000 a month, Ms Lee gave almost all of her income to Mr Ng, with him allegedly promising to repay the money.
Ms Lee was under the impression that she was in a romantic relationship with Mr Ng — they went on dates, discussed their future, and even shared household chores.
Mr Ng even referred to them as “man and wife” and used the phrase “till date do us [part]” to describe their relationship.
As time went by, Mr Ng started asking for more money from Ms Lee but would not allow her to meet his family or contact him on WhatsApp.
In Aug 2019, Ms Lee’s mother found out about her daughter’s dwindling savings and decided to lock them away.
When Ms Lee told Mr Ng that she could no longer give him money, the latter started treating her coldly and would not go out with her. He also would not text her unless he was requesting money.
In Nov 2020, Ms Lee hired a private investigator to look into Mr Ng’s background.
She soon learned that he was living in a well-renovated HDB flat with another woman.
The investigator also told her that he didn’t seem to have any financial problems.
Mr Lee had transferred over S$212,850 to him by the time she found out the truth.
Subsequently, she decided to sue him for deceit and fraudulent misrepresentation and asked him to repay the money.
In court, Mr Ng reportedly stated that the sum of money Ms Lee gave him differed from what she claimed.
Source: Marriage. For illustration purposes only.
He also argued that his actions were not deceptive and insisted the relationship was genuine even though they were not intimate.
The 41-year-old added that Ms Lee gave him the money voluntarily whenever he was facing financial difficulties. Mr Ng also said that she didn’t ask for repayment until they broke up and when the lawsuit took place.
However, District Judge Jasmin Kaur ruled in favour of Ms Lee, stating she had proven that she was misled by false representations, which led to her giving money to Mr Ng.
Conversely, the judge said Mr Ng made inconsistent statements, and that there’s no evidence to support his claims.
Judge Kaur also found evidence from his credit card statements from Nov 2017 to Jan 2020 which indicated that he had splurged on luxury items and services. This contradicted what he said about having financial problems.
In the end, the judge ordered Mr Ng to pay Ms Lee S$210,050 in damages plus interest at 5.33% from the suit’s filing to the judgment date, along with S$50,000 in costs plus GST and approximately S$10,000 in disbursements.
The judge concluded that Mr Ng treated Ms Lee as “nothing more than an ATM”, referring to text messages in late 2020 where Ms Lee begged for reconciliation and even offered financial support.
Also read: Man in Thailand to sue for adultery after wife leaves him for govt official they had threesome with
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Featured image by MS News.
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