Students get 21 months’ probation over Jay Chou concert ticket scam

SINGAPORE — Two students were each sentenced to 21 months’ probation yesterday, after they cheated five victims of around S$3,800 by selling them fake tickets to a Jay Chou concert held here last year.

Walden Lee Guo Quan, a 22-year-old private school student, had bought original tickets to the Taiwanese Mandopop star’s Singapore gig held in September last year.

Realising there was an overwhelming demand for tickets he decided to cheat unsuspecting buyers with fakes.

He emailed his friend Ang Teck Wee, also 22, a digital copy of the original tickets and gave him instructions to change certain details.

Ang, a Nanyang Technological University undergraduate, used Adobe Photoshop to create the fake tickets.

Between March 30 and April 17 last year, Lee sold three pairs of tickets — priced from S$750 to S$800 — to three buyers using the Carousell account “Lin_Yuxian”.

Carousell is an online platform for buyers and sellers.

All of them only realised that they had been duped after being barred entry at the concert.

Under the Carousell account “unstoppable136”, Ang sold four more tickets to two other buyers last May. Each of them paid S$720 for a pair of tickets.

One of them realised something was fishy when she made enquiries with the concert organiser about the concert and the tickets that she had bought.

“To her horror, she found out that the two tickets she was holding onto were fakes. (She) immediately tried to contact the accused but he became uncontactable,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor Vadivalagan Shanmuga.

The police had received many complaints pertaining to scams involving fake tickets for this concert, said the prosecutor.

In her sentencing remarks, District Judge Ong Chin Rhu told the duo that they were two of the “luckiest” persons she has seen in her years in court.

“You’re still in school, but one day you’ll finish school. The world out there has a lot of temptation.

“There are ‘get rich quick’ ways or other temptations. I hope that through this episode, you’ll learn how to make the right decision. Count it as a blessing,” she said, as she sentenced them to probation.

The penalty is usually for young offenders between the age of 16 and 21.

Probation conditions for both include being under an electronic monitoring system for four months, and a curfew from 11pm to 6am.

They also have to perform 180 hours of community service, while their parents have to sign a bond of S$5,000 to ensure their good behaviour during the 21 months.

A third accomplice, Koh Boon Hwee, will be sentenced on Monday.

A probation report has also been called for the 22-year-old.