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Youth pleads guilty to cheating friends of their money, which they got by scamming elderly man of S$35,000

SINGAPORE — A group of young scammers cheated a 77-year-old man of S$35,000 by getting his bank card details and one-time passwords, but ended up turning on each other.

Ravivarthan (pictured) pleaded guilty to one charge each of criminal breach of trust and acquiring the benefits of criminal conduct.

Ravivarthan (pictured) pleaded guilty to one charge each of criminal breach of trust and acquiring the benefits of criminal conduct.

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  • Ravivarthan, then 19, knew several others who had just scammed a 77-year-old man
  • He and one of the scammers decided to cheat an accomplice and take the money
  • But Ravivarthan then decided to betray his friend and cheat him in turn
  • Ravivarthan is set to be sentenced in March

SINGAPORE — A group of young scammers cheated a 77-year-old man of S$35,000 by getting his bank card details and one-time passwords, but ended up turning on each other.

Eventually, another youth who was not part of the group tried to cheat some of them of their ill-gotten gains and all were nabbed.

This youth, Ravivarthan, who goes by one name and is now aged 20, pleaded guilty on Tuesday (Jan 18) to one charge each of criminal breach of trust and acquiring the benefits of criminal conduct.

A third similar charge will be taken into consideration for sentencing on March 8.

District Judge Kessler Soh preliminarily called for a report to assess if he is suitable for probation, which is usually offered to first-time offenders between 16 and 21 years old. 

This does not result in a recorded criminal conviction and allows young offenders to continue with their education or employment while serving their sentences.

Ravivarthan was a student at the Institute of Technical Education College Central at the time of his offences in 2020. He now works as a delivery courier.

PLANNED TO ‘BOMB' ACCOMPLICE

The court heard that the victim had responded to a phone call from an unknown person in July 2020. He provided them with his bank card details as well as the one-time passwords that were sent to him.

Shortly after, 15 unauthorised transactions amounting to S$35,350 were made on his card.

These transactions were traced to four people who knew each other:

  • Rufus Rakesh Kumar Kalaiselvan, now aged 18
  • Emmanuel Raymond, now aged 19
  • Kshan Pillai Ganesan Pillai, now aged 20
  • Mahendra Sakkaravarthi Samraj Ahsockan, now aged 33

The three younger men have since been sentenced to probation, while Mahendra’s case is pending before the courts.

In late July 2020, Mahendra asked Kshan to procure a bank account in order to transfer S$10,000 into it.

Kshan then approached Rufus for help, asking him to receive the money they got from the victim and to funnel the money back to Kshan and Mahendra.

Knowing that he would receive a commission for his efforts, Rufus agreed to the plan and told Ravivarthan about the whole scheme.

Because Rufus’ bank account had a withdrawal limit of S$5,000, he kept this amount in his account and recruited Emmanuel to receive the remaining sum in his account.

Without Kshan and Mahendra knowing, Ravivarthan and Rufus then hatched a scheme to cheat Kshan and keep the money for themselves.

Rufus soon told Ravivarthan that he had the S$5,000 and asked him what to do with it.

Ravivarthan said to hold onto the money first as part of their plan to “bomb” or scam Kshan — by telling him that the account had been frozen. Then, they would split the cash between themselves.

USED MONEY FOR GAMBLING

However, Ravivarthan decided to go further and cheat Rufus.

He told Rufus to transfer the money to a “safer account”, that this "safer" account belonged to someone who was remanded in prison.

However, the truth was that it belonged to Ravivarthan’s girlfriend.

Rufus transferred S$4,900 to the account.

The court heard that Kshan had told Ravivarthan about the original sum of S$10,000 being “dirty” money, and that Ravivarthan had previously helped Kshan and Mahendra shift S$4,000 in illegal proceeds.

When Kshan realised that he was possibly being deceived by his accomplices, he began to threaten Rufus, who grew afraid and told Ravivarthan.

Fearing that Rufus would be in danger, Ravivarthan told him to report to Mahendra in order to get “protection”.

Rufus then asked Ravivarthan to return the money to Kshan. Ravivarthan reassured him that he would do so, but continued to pocket the cash.

He eventually gambled away about S$3,000 from what Rufus had transferred to his girlfriend’s account.

Separately, earlier in 2020, Ravivarthan told Rufus about a fake investment scheme in a company that could purportedly obtain 50 to 100 per cent returns in two weeks. Rufus then collected S$3,000 from Emmanuel and another friend, transferring this to Ravivarthan.

Ravivarthan similarly proceeded to misappropriate the sum by gambling it away.

CARING FOR ILL MOTHER

Deputy Public Prosecutor Chong Kee En asked for suitability reports for both probation and reformative training to be called. Reformative training is a regimented rehabilitation programme for those under 21 who commit relatively serious crimes.

In mitigation, Ravivarthan’s defence counsel Ashwin Ganapathy told the court that he would be “candid” in saying that the prosecution’s submissions were not unreasonable.

However, he asked for just the probation report to be prepared first. The lawyer added that Ravivarthan was only 19 at the time of his offences, and is now the sole caregiver of his cancer-stricken mother.

He had already been remanded for a week to carry out investigations.

District Judge Soh agreed with Mr Ganapathy but warned Ravivarthan that if he was found unsuitable for probation, a reformative training report would be called.

Ravivarthan will return to court on March 8.

Those convicted of criminal breach of trust can be jailed for up to seven years or fined, or punished with both.

Related topics

court crime cheat OTP bank scam Youth

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