SINGAPORE: A regular with the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) became addicted to gambling, keeping up the habit even when he was posted to Taiwan for a stint.
To fund his gambling habit, he transferred S$1.6 million belonging to his adoptive father to himself, including S$533,800 from the 62-year-old man’s Central Provident Fund.
He also tried to delay discovery by pretending to lodge a police report on his father’s behalf. When he realised the police were closing in on him, he fled to Taiwan.
He surrendered a few months later after encountering an elderly shopkeeper who reminded him of his grandmother.
Tay Yi Cong, a 29-year-old Singaporean, was sentenced on Thursday (Aug 13) to seven years’ jail.
He pleaded guilty to seven charges of theft or cheating, with another 28 charges taken into consideration.
THE CASE
The court heard that Tay was a student from the National University of Singapore.
At the time of the offences, he was a regular officer and senior medic with the SAF, holding the rank of ME1-2.
Tay was addicted to playing baccarat at casinos in Singapore even before he went to Taiwan from late 2021 for SAF duties.
While in Taiwan, he turned to online gambling and underground casinos, incurring about S$60,000 in debt to multiple banks by December 2023.
Despite the mounting debts, Tay wanted to continue gambling, so he made plans to obtain money to do so.
In Taiwan, he shared a bunk with another regular, a 29-year-old man. On Dec 29, 2023, Tay unlocked his bunkmate’s phone while the man was sleeping and applied for a bank account, successfully guessing his bunkmate’s Singpass passcode.
A Standard Chartered bank account was opened in his bunkmate’s name, and Tay used it to apply for a loan of S$25,000 to be disbursed into his own bank account.
Tay used the money for personal expenses and gambling, and spent his winnings on luxury goods from Loewe, Balenciaga and Burberry.
He continued to gamble at local casinos when he returned to Singapore in January 2024.
Tay was banned from entering the Marina Bay Sands casino from Jan 30, 2024 after he stole a Rolex Oyster Datejust watch worth S$11,900 from a man there.
The watch was recovered and Tay went to Resorts World Sentosa Casino instead to continue gambling.
He transferred S$25,000 from his younger brother’s bank account to his own using the banking application on his brother’s phone.
DECEPTION ON HIS FATHER
After returning to Singapore, Tay decided to apply for bank loans and credit cards using his father’s particulars.
He knew that his father’s phone was not locked with a password.
Whenever it was unattended, Tay would access bank websites to apply for credit cards or loans, retrieving his father’s particulars from Singpass as the Singpass account was not secured by any password.
He was able to successfully apply for bank loans and credit cards from five banks.
When banks created loan accounts in his father’s name and deposited the loan proceeds into them, Tay accessed the accounts and transferred the money to himself.
He again spent the funds on gambling and luxury goods.
Tay first cheated the banks into disbursing a total of about S$380,558, saddling his father with the burden of repaying the sum.
When the offences went undetected, Tay felt emboldened and decided to transfer money from his father’s bank accounts to his own for gambling.
Because his father did not use biometrics as a form of authentication, Tay needed only to key in his father’s login details, kept in a book at home, to log into each banking application.
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