\n<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE \u2013 An American woman travelled to Singapore claiming to be the sister of a Marriott associate to repeatedly obtain discounted room rates.<\/p>\n
Kao Jane Zhao, 41, who obtained nearly $3,400 in discounts, pleaded guilty to a cheating charge involving more than $1,500.<\/p>\n
Eight other charges, including those linked to the remaining amount, will be considered when she is sentenced in October. She has since made full restitution.<\/p>\n
The court heard that in 2024, she was in the US when she went on classified advertisements website Craiglist and bought an Explore membership \u2013 a programme by hotel company Marriott Bonvoy \u2013 from an unknown seller for US$300 (S$380).<\/p>\n
State Prosecuting Officer Zakir Hussain said Kao knew the seller had falsely stated in the Explore membership authorisation form that she was the sister of one Michael Melendez, a Marriott associate.<\/p>\n
She also knew that only Marriott associates and their family members could receive discounted rates for their rooms at participating properties worldwide by presenting the \u201cExplore by Marriott Bonvoy Program Authorisation Form\u201d at the front desk.<\/p>\n
Such properties included Sheraton Towers Singapore.<\/p>\n
On Sept 8, 2024, Kao checked into the hotel after presenting the form to its front-desk manager, falsely representing herself as Melendez\u2019s sister.<\/p>\n
She then dishonestly induced Sheraton Towers to deliver discounted room rates to stay at the hotel for five nights.<\/p>\n
After that, she extended her stay at the hotel on four separate occasions for another five consecutive nights at the discounted rate.<\/p>\n
Kao checked out on Sept 18, 2024, only to return five days later to stay four more nights.<\/p>\n
In total, she received more than $1,500 in discounts.<\/p>\n
During her final stay, the manager verified her authorisation form with his counterparts in the US and found out she was not Melendez\u2019s sister.<\/p>\n
The manager alerted the police and Kao was arrested.<\/p>\n
On Sept 4, defence lawyer Gino Hardial Singh from Abbots Chambers asked the court to sentence her to a fine of not more than $5,000, adding her conduct arose from poor judgment.<\/p>\n
For cheating, an offender can be jailed for up to three years, fined or both.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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SINGAPORE \u2013 An American woman travelled to Singapore claiming to be the sister of a Marriott associate to repeatedly obtain discounted room rates. Kao Jane…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/73344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}