Man jailed for cheating 12 victims, threatening to expose a man's sexual orientation

SINGAPORE: A man cheated 12 victims of S$13,000 across various types of common scams, threatening one man with exposing his sexual orientation after they engaged in intimacy.

For his multiple crimes, 25-year-old Sim Zhi Gang was given nine months and six weeks' jail on Tuesday (Jan 5).

The court heard that Sim, also known as Ken, was involved in three types of scams that he had either carried out alone or with accomplices.

These were: A telecommunication mobile phone scam, where he got victims to sign up for phone lines, promising a commission but leaving them with phone bills and taking the bundled phones and SIM cards, a Carousell ticket scam and a personal injury insurance scam.

To carry out the phone scams, Sim put up advertisements on Instagram promising "fast cash". He then asked the victims to sign up for mobile phone lines, promising to pay for monthly subscription bills.

However, after he collected the bundled phones from the victims and the accompanying SIM cards, he sold these off and left the victims with the bills.

He carried out the Carousell ticket scams by selling tickets to places like Universal Studio Singapore and Bruno Mars' concerts, getting bank transfers for the tickets but failing to produce any such items.

For the personal injury insurance scam, Sim was in a traffic accident with a few friends, after which one of the car passengers suggested seeking medical assistance to make fraudulent insurance claims.

Sim agreed and complained of injuries that he had not suffered, lying to the doctor at the emergency department. He got a lawyer to claim about S$10,000 in damages and costs from the vehicle insurer, NTUC Income Insurance; but the latter investigated the claims and filed a police report. No payout was made.

In March 2018, Sim befriended a man through Instagram and started communicating with him. At about 3am on Apr 21, 2018, Sim went to the man's home and engaged in physical intimacy.

A few days later, Sim threatened to expose the man's sexual orientation by posting screenshots of their conversations on Facebook, demanding that the victim transfer S$100 to him.

Threatened and alarmed by the possible exposure of his sexual orientation, the victim transferred S$102 to Sim via PayLah. Sim repaid this amount to the victim a few months ago.

He pleaded guilty in court to six charges including cheating, money laundering and criminal intimidation, with another eight charges taken into consideration.

The prosecutor asked for at least 11 months' jail, saying that Sim had committed multiple offences from 2017 to 2020.

The defence said Sim is an only child who now works as a food deliveryman, and his wife is pregnant. He said Sim has pleaded guilty, is thoroughly remorseful and has no prior convictions.

"He wishes to serve his sentence, turn over a new leaf and commit the rest of his life to being a devoted and responsible father and husband," said lawyer Wee Hong Shern.