Man jailed after using StarHub customer details to sign up for new plans, cheating telco of S$195,000 in phones

SINGAPORE: Saddled with gambling debts and bills for his wedding as well as his mother's medical treatment, a man cheated StarHub of almost S$195,000.

Sim Zong Hui, whose wife has since left him, was sentenced to three years' jail on Monday (Mar 22).

Sim, 31, pleaded guilty to two charges of cheating StarHub between June 2019 and September 2019, by using the identity details of existing customers to apply for mobile subscription plans. He then sold the phones that came with the plans and kept the proceeds.

The court heard that Sim was a sales consultant at Planet Telecoms, a mobile handset retailer engaged by StarHub to process its telco contracts. He had access to StarHub's computer system for sales transactions as part of his job.

Sim began gambling in 2013, borrowing money from his friends as his losses piled up. His debt surged to about S$40,000 and he devised a plan in June 2019 to raise cash to repay his debts.

According to his lawyers, Sim also contributed to his mother's medical bills after she was diagnosed with kidney failure.

He also incurred wedding costs of about S$30,000 after a fortune teller advised his family that a marriage would be able to "cleanse the family of bad luck", his lawyers said.

THE SCHEME

The court heard that Sim used StarHub's system to scan the images of customers' National Registration Identity Cards (NRIC), before using their particulars to sign up for new mobile subscription plans.

If required, he would make upfront payments to obtain new phones, before selling them at a retail shop.

Sim also roped in his co-accused Benjamin Loh Boon Hong in July 2019, asking the latter for images of NRICs.

Loh was initially reluctant, as he had just been released from prison, but eventually agreed. He asked a friend from prison for images of NRICs belonging to debtors who owed loan sharks money, and used these for the scheme.

Sim would then collect new mobile phones using those particulars and pass them to Loh to sell. The two men split the proceeds equally.

Loh also sold some of the handsets on Carousell.

In total, Sim collected 157 new phones using the NRIC particulars Loh gave him. Sim passed 41 of the phones to Loh to sell, secretly keeping the rest to sell on his own.

The conspiracy continued until late September 2019, when a StarHub customer complained that her NRIC had been used without her consent to sign up for a mobile subscription plan.

StarHub launched an internal investigation and a fraud investigator lodged a police report on behalf of the company in early November 2019.

Sim made restitution of S$150,000 in September 2020 to StarHub, about 82 per cent of the total loss suffered by the telco.

The prosecutor asked for three years and eight months' jail for Sim, noting Sim's abuse of authority as well as high levels of premeditation and concealment.

HE PAID FOR WEDDING, MOTHER'S BILLS: DEFENCE

Lawyers Remy Choo and Ashley Yeo of Peter Low & Choo asked for not more than two years' jail. They said Sim's mother was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2015.

Sim, who is the eldest son, earned about S$2,000 monthly, and contributed "significantly" to his mother's medical expenses, said Mr Choo.

Sometime in March 2018, Sim's parents consulted a fortune teller in Malaysia and were told that a marriage had to take place within the family to cleanse it of "bad luck" or else ill health or harm would befall Sim's father.

As Sim was the only child in the family who was in a relationship at the time, he proposed to his long-term girlfriend of about 14 years.

He borrowed S$2,000 from a friend for the ring, and incurred other expenses of about S$28,000 for the wedding photography, gown rental, rings and banquet.

He borrowed money from friends and colleagues to pay for some of these expenses, his lawyers said.

They urged the court to consider Sim's early restitution, adding that he is "extremely remorseful" and has cooperated fully with StarHub and the police. He is a first-time offender and his wife has since left him, moving out when he was in police custody.

For each charge of cheating, Sim could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined.