A woman was sentenced to 12 years in jail today (13 March) after pleading guilty to five counts of cheating.
According to The Straits Times (ST), 47-year-old Lynne Charlotte James lied to her boss, saying she was bankrupt and needed his help to pay “fees” to the Insolvency and Public Trustee’s Office (IPTO).
The 69-year-old victim had used his wife’s money and borrowed more than S$1 million from his niece to “help” Lynne.
The court stated that Lynne had begun working at a real estate firm in 2006, reported Channel News Asia (CNA).
From May 2008 to October 2017, she was extorting money out of the victim and his family after facing financial issues and bankruptcy.
Source: Ministry of Law
Lynne told the victim she was bankrupt and lied to him, saying the IPTO had retained funds in her bankruptcy estate.
As such, she asked her boss to help pay off purported fees to the IPTO, promising to repay him when her funds were released.
ST reported that Lynne went as far as to create fictitious e-mails from the IPTO and the Ministry of Law requesting for the fees to be paid.
She told the victim the money he had given her would be confiscated if he stopped paying the IPTO “fees”.
ST also reported that Lynne had “warned the victim not to report the matter to the police or IPTO” as they would confiscate the money if they discovered he was helping her.
The victim continuously transferred money to Lynne, hoping her “funds” in her bankruptcy estate would be released.
Unbeknownst to him, she was using the money to repay her loans from moneylenders.
CNA also reported that she used the money for her personal expenses.
To help Lynne, the victim and his wife sold two of their condominium units and their personal possessions.
Eventually, the couple ran out of their own funds and had to borrow S$1.1 million from the victim’s niece.
Over close to 10 years, Lynne had received S$3,677,537.03 from the victim.
The victim and his wife now stay in a rented home as they cannot afford to buy one. Lynne is yet to make any restitution to the victim.
According to ST, District Judge Shawn Ho said the victim, who also has cancer, suffered a stroke because of this incident.
Judge Ho added that the victim’s wife was receiving psychiatric help to address her deteriorating mental health.
However, she is now unable to afford the treatment.
The victim’s daughter was also reported to have committed self-harm, but it is unclear if it was due to the case.
For her crimes, Lynne was sentenced to 12 years in jail.
Judge Ho handed down the sentence to Lynne in court on 13 March, saying this was a “heartrending case”.
“You cheated the victim 2,253 times over almost 10 years,” he added.
Due to her repeated offences, Lynne will not be treated as a first-time offender despite not having a criminal record.
She is expected to begin serving her sentence on 16 April, with her bail going for S$100,000.
Also read: 5 men who allegedly cheated victims of over S$1.4M in S’pore fake friend scam syndicate arrested
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Featured image adapted from Nuria Ling for TODAY on CNA and linyuwei on Canva.
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