NSF admits threatening girlfriend over her nude photos, trying to cheat Foodpanda of S$5,400

SINGAPORE — After a young man persuaded his girlfriend to send him nude photos of herself, he accused her of cheating on him and got her to tell the police that she had been raped by her ex-boyfriend.

He also sent her phone text messages asking if she had “jump down”, alluding to her committing suicide, and threatened to leak the photos when she refused to reveal her new Facebook account password.

The 21-year-old Singapore permanent resident from Malaysia, who is now a full-time national serviceman (NSF), pleaded guilty on Tuesday (Feb 15) to one count each of threatening to distribute intimate images and attempting to cheat food delivery firm Foodpanda of S$5,456.

He had used the victim’s mother’s personal details to fraudulently register for a Foodpanda rider account.

Two other charges of illegally obtaining personal information will be taken into consideration for his sentencing on March 15. District Judge Ronald Gwee called for a report to assess if he is suitable for probation.

He cannot be named due to a court order to protect the identity of his then-girlfriend, also aged 21.

VICTIM TRUSTED HIM

The court heard that the victim was “not very comfortable” with sending him nude photos on his request, but did so nonetheless. He had 11 such photos on his mobile phone, having also taken several of them during their relationship.

She trusted that he understood these were meant for his personal consumption only, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Daphne Chee told the court.

On June 3, 2020, he grew angry at her over text messages and accused her of cheating on him with her previous romantic partner. When she denied this, he called her to argue some more, telling her to call the police and claim that she was “raped” by her ex-partner.

She complied, calling the police after ending her call with him.

They then continued texting but when she stopped responding to his messages, he sent her some that included: “Jump down alr?”, “Haven’t oh no”, and “When u jump down and die”. She did not reply.

About two hours later, he sent her more messages upon realising that she had changed her Facebook password. He asked her why and demanded that she tell him what the new one was.

He then called her twice but she did not pick up. He then threatened to “send ur nudes out”.

She proceeded to tell the police officers, who had arrived at her house to respond to her earlier report of alleged rape, about what had happened. 

WANTED DELIVERY COMMISSIONS

Around the same time, the man separately decided to register rider accounts with Foodpanda to cheat the firm into disbursing delivery commissions to him.

He used the National Identity Registration Card details of his then-girlfriend’s mother and another person to register for two rider accounts. His own account was already registered to his electronic scooter at the time.

Between June 1 and 8 in 2020, he used the two fraudulent accounts to accept 355 delivery orders.

Of these, 284 involved credit card payments. He failed to deliver these orders, simply marking them as “delivered” on the Foodpanda mobile application so that the firm would give him commission.

An assistant fleet manager from Foodpanda then discovered a large number of unfulfilled orders and suspended the two accounts, filing a police report on the same day. The accused did not receive any delivery commissions.

However, the firm incurred a total loss of S$5,456 in disbursing payments to the food establishments that had already prepared the delivery orders, refunding the customers who did not get their orders, and issuing complimentary vouchers to them as an apology for the inconvenience caused.

The accused has made restitution of just S$1,100 to Foodpanda.

In mitigation, Mr Manoj Belani, his pro bono lawyer from Drew & Napier, told the court that the man's actions were “entirely out of character” and that he had a “strong propensity for reform”, having “performed well in school”. He completed his polytechnic diploma before enlisting in National Service.

His internship supervisor observed that he was a skilled worker with a “good sense of responsibility” and a “positive attitude”, the lawyer added.

He has also committed to regularly paying back Foodpanda to cover their losses, and made no profits from his offences, Mr Belani said.

As for how his client had acted towards his girlfriend, the defence counsel said that he did it out of a “lack of romantic experience”, was apologetic and did not have any malicious intent. The couple continued dating for another four months after he committed the offences.

The judge agreed with the defence’s submission for a pre-sentencing probation report.

Anyone convicted of distributing or threatening to distribute intimate images or recordings can be jailed for up to five years, fined, caned, or receive any combination of the three.