SAF regular, 29, takes S$1.9 million from friends & family to fund gambling habit, flees S'pore but later turns himself in

To keep up his gambling addiction, a Singaporean man, 29, siphoned nearly S$1.9 million in total from five people, including about S$1.65 million from his adoptive father.

He also forged a police report he purportedly made to prevent his father from lodging a real one.

Then, he fled to Taiwan when he found out the police was investigating the withdrawals he made from his father's Central Provident Fund (CPF) account.

Tay Yi Cong, now 29, pleaded guilty to seven charges related to cheating and theft.

Another 28 charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

On Aug. 13, he was sentenced to a total of seven years in jail, backdated to Jun. 17, 2024, when he was remanded for these offences.

His gambling habit

Tay, a student from the National University of Singapore (NUS), was a regular officer and senior medic in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) at the time of the offences in 2023 and 2024, according to court documents.

He developed a gambling addiction playing baccarat at casinos in Singapore, and online gambling and underground casinos in Taiwan when he was there for SAF duties between 2021 and 2023.

By December 2023, he had incurred about S$60,000 worth of debt to multiple banks, without the means to repay those debts. Nonetheless, he wanted to continue gambling.

He continued going to the Marina Bay Sands Casino to gamble despite being banned from the venue from Jan. 30, 2024, for stealing someone's S$11,900 Rolex watch there.

Deceiving a fellow regular

While posted in Taiwan, he grew close to the 29-year-old SAF regular he bunked with, to the extent that the man entrusted Tay with the PIN number for his phone.

One night when the friend was sleeping, Tay unlocked his phone and signed up for a Standard Chartered bank account under the friend's name. He was able to log into the friend's Singpass account by guessing his six-digit passcode.

Then, he used this new account to apply for a S$25,000 loan, and for the loan to be delivered to his own DBS bank account.

Tay used this money to finance his personal expenditures and to gamble at the Marina Bay Sands Casino after he returned to Singapore.

He then spent his winnings on luxury goods from Loewe, Balenciaga, and Burberry.

Deceiving his brother

In January 2024, Tay used his younger brother's DBS iBanking app on his phone to transfer S$25,000 to his father's bank account, and then to his own DBS account, without either person's knowledge.

He did not make any restitution to his brother.

Deceiving his father

After Tay returned to Singapore from Taiwan in January 2024, he applied for bank loans and credit cards using his 62-year-old adoptive father's particulars.

His father's phone did not require a password to unlock, and neither was his Singpass account secured by any password.

Tay was thus able to apply for bank loans and/or credit cards under his father's name from five banks.

He would either transfer the sums from the loan accounts to his DBS account, or apply for the loan to be sent directly to his DBS account.

As for the credit cards, he would use them to pay for his own expenses.

Similar to before, he gambled away S$42,900 he got from a loan account, and used any winnings he gained to purchase luxury goods.

Through such loans, he cheated several banks of S$380,558, and left his father saddled with the burden of repaying the sum.

As these offences went undetected, Tay felt emboldened and decided to transfer money from his father's bank accounts to his own account over several occasions, to use for gambling.

He also plotted to withdraw money from his father's CPF account and transfer it to himself so that he could place bigger bets at casinos.

To pass the Singpass facial recognition to access his father's CPF account, Tay scanned his father's face using the camera on his iPad. His father did not check what the scan was for and simply did as his son told.

Tay increased the daily withdrawal limit of the father's CPF account, then transferred a total of S$533,800 to his own bank account over seven occasions from Jan. 30 to Mar. 6, 2024.

He spent this full sum at the Resorts World Sentosa Casino.

Combining the transfers from his father's bank accounts and CPF account, the total sum of money he siphoned was S$1,653,258.

He paid S$37,700 back by making six transfers from his own account to his father's between February and March 2024.

Impersonating bank staff

Sometime between late January and early February 2024, Tay's father noticed that the account balance in his POSB account was lower than what he recalled, and saw that some transfers were made to Tay's DBS account.

When the father called POSB about this, the staff told him the issue should be settled within his own family, then abruptly ended the call.

Tay knew about this call as his father put it on speaker.

Fearing his offences would be discovered, Tay called his father using another phone the next day, pretending to be a bank manager of DBS.

He told his father that his POSB Account had been frozen due to issues with the banking system.

The father thus decided to use his OCBC account for daily expenses instead, but realised then that its bank balance had plummeted.

Then, Tay similarly used another phone to call his father pretending to be an OCBC staff member, and told his father OCBC was experiencing a nationwide banking glitch and was investigating the matter.

Faking a police report

When the father told Tay about his bank account issues, Tay lied that he would make a police report for him, and forged a report using an online template.

After seeing a copy of the forged police report, the father decided not to lodge one himself.

Tay also bought his father a new phone as a birthday gift, then continued to use his father's old phone to transfer money to himself.

Finally, Tay's father discovered the withdrawals on his CPF account in March 2024, and submitted and inquiry.

A CPF customer service executive made a police report, prompting the police to call the father.

As the father again put the call on loudspeaker mode, Tay overheard the conversation and learnt that the police had begun their investigations.

He absconded the country on Mar. 13, 2024, by boarding a flight to Taiwan.

Further offences

While in Taiwan, he met up again with the SAF regular he had bunked with.

Using the friend's phone, Tay transferred S$11,875.50 from the friend's bank account and used it for his daily expenses in Taiwan.

His offences involving this friend amounted to total losses of S$36,875.50, S$6,000 of which was later waived by the bank.

Tay did not make any restitution to this friend.

Also in Taiwan, he met the last victim, another SAF regular who was on duty in Taiwan.

This man was unaware that Tay had absconded, and was close enough with Tay that he previously shared his personal passwords with him.

Using this friend's phone, Tay transferred money to himself and applied for loans under the friend's name.

The losses involving this friend added up to S$168,155, which he used for gambling and personal expenses, including when he travelled to the Philippines and South Korea.

He also did not make any restitution to this friend.

Arrest

While in South Korea, Tay was running out of money when he encountered an elderly shopkeeper who reminded him of his late grandmother.

He confessed his offences to the shopkeeper, who suggested that he turn himself in.

He decided to do so. He returned to Singapore in June 2024 and turned himself in to the authorities as he had nearly run out of money to sustain himself overseas.

Sentencing

The prosecution sought a total jail sentence of seven years to seven years and eight months.

They highlighted that his actions were an "egregious betrayal" of people close to him, and he "financially exploited the people who trusted him for his own gain".

Tay's father, in particular, is approaching the age of retirement, and "was drained of a significant amount of his hard-earned CPF savings" by Tay, they added.

Furthermore, they pointed out that although the intent behind Tay's offences was to obtain money for gambling, any winnings that he derived from gambling did not go towards repaying the loans he took using his friend's name.

Instead, he used the winnings to buy luxury items.

Considering the "astronomical losses" and the abuse of trust, "the impact of his offences will still be felt long after the conclusion of this case", the prosecution argued.