SINGAPORE — A shopkeeper who cheated a customer into investing more than S$145,000 in a bogus business she claimed was supplying goods to the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) eMart was sentenced to two years and four months' jail on Wednesday (Aug 2).

Jahabar Nachia Mohamed Abdullah, 67, was convicted of 10 counts of cheating on July 14 after claiming trial. In her defence, she had claimed the various payments that she received from the victim were loans but this was rejected by the court.

SAF eMart is an online shopping platform where servicemen can buy products such as uniforms and military equipment.

Jahabar came to know the victim, Mr Kasmuri Hambali, in 2000 after he bought items from her shops at Beach Road in his capacity as an English teacher in charge of the National Cadet Corps (NCC), a co-curricular activity in school.

Court documents did not state what type of shops Jahabar ran.

Between March 30 and Sept 3, 2015, Jahabar cheated Mr Kasmuri on 10  occasions by deceiving him into believing that he was investing in a business supplying goods to SAF eMart.

As a result Mr Kasmuri made payments totalling S$145,500 to Jahabar.

Jahabar is appealing against her conviction and sentence.

WHAT HAPPENED

According to court documents prepared by Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Foong Ke Hui, sometime before March 30, 2015, Jahabar asked if Kasmuri would be interested to do some business.

She told him that she had been supplying military materials and goods to the SAF eMart for a very long time but would like to increase her capital so that she could afford to supply more items to the online shopping platform.

After forming the view that Jahabar's business was doing well, Mr Kasmuri decided to invest in what she claimed was a "fast turnover" business.

Jahabar promised that she would give him a share of the profits.

On March 30, 2015, Mr Kasmuri gave Jahabar a cheque for S$12,000, which was the sum she had requested. In exchange, Jahabar handed him a handwritten acknowledgement slip that was prepared beforehand and signed by her.

The slip stated that Jahabar received S$12,000 from Mr Kasmuri and she would promise to repay him the returns of the investment amounting to S$15,000 within three months, by June 30, 2015.

Based on the slip he was given, Mr Kasmuri understood that he was sharing some part of the business and that after Jahabar received payment, she would return his investment to him with the profit that she made.

In addition to this acknowledgement slip, Jahabar also gave Mr Kasmuri a post-dated cheque for S$15,000 which he could cash in after June 30 when SAF eMart had made payment to her.

After the first payment, Mr Kasmuri gave Jahabar cash cheques of varying sums on seven other occasions. On six out of those seven occasions, Jahabar gave him similar handwritten acknowledgement slips to the one after the first payment.

Mr Kasmuri gave cash to Jahabar on two other occasions, first S$500 on Aug 21, 2015 and then S$3,000 on Sept 3, but no acknowledgement slips were issued by Jahabar to Mr Kasmuri for these payments.

Mr Kasmuri never received any repayments or profits on his "investments".

When Mr Kasmuri messaged Jahabar to ask if he could have his payments returned to him, she kept delaying the return which eventually led to him lodging a police report on Nov 4.

Restitution of S$7,200 was made by Jahabar after the police report was lodged.

SIGNIFICANT LEVEL OF PRE-PLANNING

In seeking a sentence of at least three years' jail, DPP Foong cited a significant level of pre-planning as Jahabar had issued handwritten acknowledgement slips and post-dated cheques to give the impression that the investment was legitimate.

Even though the scam was perpetrated on only one victim, it shows that Jahabar had exploited the victim's trust and repeatedly deceived him into making payments on 10 separate occasions over a period of about five months.

DPP Foong added that such a sentence would be appropriate for Jahabar to reflect her overall culpability as well as her lack of remorse over her conduct.

For each count of cheating, Jahabar could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined.