S'pore man, 25, unlocks ex-girlfriend's phone while she slept, transfers money to himself, gets 3 months' jail

A 25-year-old man, Douglas Tsang, was sentenced to three months' jail after he secretly unlocked his ex-girlfriend's phone while she was asleep and transferred money from her bank accounts to himself.

He was also ordered to return the full amount he misappropriated.

According to Lianhe Zaobao, Tsang faced three charges of violating the Computer Misuse Act.

He pleaded guilty to two of them on Jan. 5, with the third charge taken into consideration during sentencing.

Allowed to set up facial recognition

Zaobao reported that Tsang began dating his ex-girlfriend, then 22 years old, in January 2024.

The couple broke up five months later on May 9, 2024.

During their relationship, the victim had shared her phone passcode with Tsang and also allowed him to set up facial recognition access on her phone.

Travelled to Seoul together after the breakup

Despite having broken up, the pair proceeded with a pre-planned trip to South Korea from May 10 to May 22, 2024, Zaobao reported.

During the trip, Tsang allegedly unlocked the victim's phone twice while she was asleep, used the facial recognition function to access her online banking app, and transferred S$1,000 to his own account.

After the trip, the victim reportedly removed Tsang's facial recognition access from her phone.

However, Tsang, who already knew the phone's passcode, later unlocked the device, re-enabled facial recognition on the banking applications and continued to make unauthorised transfers.

According to charge sheets seen by Mothership, between May 16 and Jun. 5, 2024, Tsang used the victim's DBS PayLah! app five times to transfer a total of S$2,300 to himself.

He also transferred S$400 to himself via the Revolut app on May 27.

Took advantage of victim's trust

As reported in Zaobao, the court heard that while Tsang later returned some money to the victim, these were repayments of sums she had previously lent him.

He has yet to compensate the victim for the unauthorised transfers.

The prosecution also stated that Tsang had taken advantage of the victim’s trust, noting that she continued to trust him despite their breakup, travelling, and staying with him during the trip.

During mitigation, Tsang's lawyer said Tsang was remorseful, adding that he had cooperated with police investigations and pleaded guilty early, and urged the court for leniency.

Top photos via Unsplash and Mothership