A 73-year-old woman in Singapore was shocked to find out that S$130,000 had been transferred out of three of her joint bank accounts within a span of two years.

However, she eventually found out that the culprit was her youngest daughter, the co-owner of the three joint accounts.

The elderly woman has since lodged a police report, but has been advised to seek legal assistance instead, as the case involves joint account matters.

Joint accounts contained her and hubby's life savings

The woman, surnamed Chen (transliteration), explained to Shin Min Daily News that she had opened these accounts with her daughter in May 2021.

Following which, the elderly woman transferred her and her husband's life savings into these three accounts.

The money had been accumulated over the years when Chen worked as a dishwasher, while her husband worked as a boatsman.

The total sum was about S$180,000.

As to why she set up these accounts with her daughter, Chen said she could not remember the reason.

Left with about S$241 in her bank accounts

On June 26 this year, Chen received a bank statement notifying her that one of her joint accounts, that originally had about S$85,000, had been depleted to a paltry S$180.

She also found out that another account containing about S$20,000 had been completely wiped out, and the last account only had S$61 remaining.

While Chen recalled withdrawing about S$50,000 previously, she could not account for the nearly S$130,000 that had been gone missing.

Money likely used to support frozen seafood business

It was only when Chen requested to see bank records that she found out the money had been transferred out of the joint accounts by her youngest daughter.

She suspected that this was to support the frozen seafood business that her daughter and son-in-law had opened in 2021, which seemed to have run into problems.

Since Jun. 16, 2021, Chen's daughter supposedly started transferring money from the account to the company's employees, suppliers, and directly to her husband.

She even used the money to pay for her marriage certificate when she wedded earlier this year.

After making this discovery, Chen confronted her daughter over the phone.

"She confessed to me that she had used my money, and promised to pay me back slowly, but I have no idea how she is going to accomplish that," Chen shared with Shin Min.

At the time of writing, Shin Min was unable to reach Chen's youngest daughter, while her son-in-law did not provide further comment on the matter.

Strained relationship with family

When Shin Min interviewed Chen's eldest daughter, surnamed Zhuo, she shared that she was upset that her youngest sister had squandered her parents' life savings.

Furthermore, her father, who was in poor health a few years ago and is now bedridden, could have used the money too.

Since the incident, the family's relationship with her youngest sister has understandably deteriorated, and she has stopped replying to Chen's messages.

Nevertheless, Zhuo hopes that her sister will take responsibility for what she has done.

"We made this matter public, in hopes that they will face the problem, and come up with a solution to pay our mother back," Zhuo said.

Top image from Shin Min Daily News.