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A man has been sentenced to six months in jail for taking part in a loan scam that cheated DBS Bank of S$1.89 million, CNA reported.

According to court documents seen by Mothership, 28-year-old Muhammad Fazly Bin Laily became involved in the scam after calling a number on a toilet door.

He pleaded guilty to one count of acquiring property in his bank account amounting to S$11,400, which directly represented another person's benefits from criminal conduct — namely, cheating and fraudulent delivery.

Was earning between S$600 to S$700 when he discovered the phone number in the toilet

Court documents further highlighted that between Mar. 2019 and Apr. 2019, Fazly had been earning a salary of S$600 to S$700 from his job as a freelance video technician.

While at a coffee shop in the vicinity of Aljunied MRT station, sometime at the end of Mar. 2019, Fazly went to the toilet whereupon he discovered a phone number, accompanied by the message "need cash call this number HP", written on the back of one of the doors.

Despite not knowing who had written the message or to whom the number belonged to, Fazly proceeded to call the number.

An unidentified man then picked up the call, and the accused asked if he could obtain any amount of cash as a loan.

When the man replied yes, Fazly asked if the cash loan would be legal or illegal.

He also asked the man where he worked.

The man then replied that if the loan was illegal, there was no way that Fazly could obtain it from POSB Bank.

Did not check with the man who he was

As Fazly was only thinking about getting cash because he needed money, he did not check with the man his name, workplace location, and how the man would help him with obtaining the POSB bank loan.

Fazly then told the man that he wanted to apply for a bank loan of between S$5,000 to S$10,000.

The accused believed he was not eligible for the bank loan as his salary was too low, but decided to try his luck.

In response, the man asked Fazly to provide the following information: a photo of the front and back of his NRIC, his credit bureau report, POSB ATM Personal Identification Number (PIN), POSB account number, and SingPass login ID and password.

Fazly messaged the man this information and was told that the application would take two weeks.

The accused then claimed that he had lost the phone he used to call the man a few days later, and because he did not remember the number he called, decided not to follow up with the man about the loan he applied for.

On Apr.11, 2019, Fazly checked his POSB Savings Account and found that he had received a S$11,400 loan from DBS bank as part of the DBS Cashline loan.

He realised this amount was higher than the S$5,000 to S$10,000 that he had indicated to the male subject and believed that it was impossible for the bank to have disbursed the amount to him as a loan as his low monthly salary would have made him ineligible.

Fazly then withdrew the entire amount and spent the money on his own expenses such as massages, food and payment for sexual services.

False payslips submitted for the loan

Investigations by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) subsequently revealed that a DBS cashline loan application had submitted to DBS bank under Fazly's name on Apr. 8, 2019, with false supporting payslips.

These false payslips for Jan. to Mar. 2019 showed that Fazly had supposedly earned a salary of S$4,660 from his purported employer, Preciso Engineering Pte Ltd.

As such, DBS bank was deceived into believing that Fazly did indeed earn such a salary, resulting in the loan of S$11,400 being deposited into his account.

Court documents further noted that Fazly did not make any voluntary repayments of the loan disbursed.

S$301.70 has been recovered from his account thus far, while S$11,098.30 remains outstanding.

In their sentencing submissions, the prosecution called for a jail term of six months on the grounds that Fazly had benefitted fully from the loan of S$11,400.

CNA further reported that he will begin serving his sentence once he finishes his current imprisonment term for drug-related offences.

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Top photo by Aleksandr Zykov via Flickr