SINGAPORE — Masquerading as the successful owner of an oil and gas company, Richard Goh Swee Meng tricked his victim into “investing” S$20,000 with him.

But he merely wanted cash to repay unlicensed moneylenders he had borrowed from. From then on, he dished out a string of excuses to avoid paying the 22-year-old woman back, such as having inhaled too much gas and fallen seriously ill.

When his victim threatened to lodge a police report, he pretended to be his own personal assistant and sent her a text message saying he was in a coma.

On Friday (Aug 2), the 47-year-old was sentenced to one year and two months’ jail after pleading guilty to one cheating charge.

He will begin serving his sentence on Sept 27, and remains out on bail.

Goh committed the offence while under investigation for criminal breach of trust, and stopped replying to his latest victim when he was sentenced to 13 months’ jail for that other offence in March 2018.

SAID HE HAD PERSONAL DRIVER, ASSISTANT

The court heard that he got to know the victim, Nina Low, online in October 2017. As he needed money to pay his expenses, he hatched a plan to cheat her.

He lied that he was a successful businessman in the oil and gas sector who had dealings in private properties, and claimed he lived around Bukit Timah Road.

They primarily communicated over messaging platform WeChat, but they also met in person on three occasions.

Once, around November 2017, he told more lies — that he had a personal driver and personal assistant, was “a big boss”, and had urgent meetings to attend to.

“Subsequently, when he video-chatted with the victim via WeChat, he aimed the camera such that terrace houses were in the background, intending for the victim to believe that he was a rich man,” Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Jarret Huang told the court.

GAVE MORE EXCUSES

On Feb 20 last year, Goh told Ms Low that she could earn S$60,000 within a month by investing a third of that sum with him. He also repeatedly told her to trust him.

She fell for the ruse and transferred the money to his bank account, increasing her transfer limit to do so.

While he spent the money paying off his loan shark debts, he told her she would receive her returns in March last year.

When he could not deliver on his promise, he claimed that he was overseas, his company had run into some issues, he was sleeping in his office to deal with them, and he did not have his Internet banking token with him.

Goh also got hold of a screenshot of the balance of someone else’s bank account, showing a sum of S$176 million, and told her it was his account.

Ultimately, Goh lied that because of his purported job, he had inhaled too much gas. He then told Ms Low over WeChat in end-March last year that his personal assistant would transfer the S$60,000 to her, when she said she would report him to the police.

Then, posing as “Aisha”, the supposed assistant, Goh told Ms Low over WeChat that he was in a coma due to his medical condition.

“This was done to try to avoid paying the victim back. He eventually stopped replying to the victim altogether after he was incarcerated,” DPP Huang said.

Goh gave his own mitigation plea in court, saying he only cheated Ms Low “due to my desperation from loan sharks chasing me”.

He added that he had asked his investigation officer if he could make restitution, but did not hear back.

“Whatever sentence Your Honour is giving me, even after I’m released from prison, I will contact the investigation officer to slowly pay back the lady,” he told District Judge Ong Luan Tze.

For cheating, Goh could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined.