SINGAPORE: A man who tried but failed to dupe a bank into handing him a S$2.88 million loan in 2015 as part of a housing loan scam has been jailed for attempted cheating and drug-related offences.
Saiful Azri Ali Amat had earlier pleaded guilty in September 2021 to methamphetamine consumption, only to abscond before his scheduled sentencing the following month.
He continued abusing the drug until his arrest in August 2024 and has been in custody since.
On Thursday (March 26), Saiful, 40, was sentenced to six years’ jail after he pleaded guilty to five drug-related charges and an unrelated charge of attempted cheating linked to the scam.
Other offenders involved in the scam, including Sufandi Ahmad and Bijabahadur Rai Shree Kantrai, were dealt with in court earlier.
Deputy public prosecutors Joseph Gwee and Matthew Choo stated in court documents that Rai had proposed a “cashback scheme” to Sufandi.
As part of the ruse, Sufandi had to look for private landed properties that were for sale and find “buyers” who would purchase these properties in their names.
The DPP said: “Sufandi then convinced the sellers... to perform a ‘cashback’ (to the offenders) of the excess payment received from the buyers’ bank upon completion (of the transaction) as a result of the inflated sale price.”
He then found out that a woman wanted to sell her property, which was referred to as X1 in court documents.
An unnamed acquaintance later introduced Saiful to Sufandi, and Saiful agreed to be listed as X1’s buyer.
Sufandi also told Saiful to apply for a mortgage loan to buy the property, saying it would “be an investment which would reap returns in a few years”.
Saiful accepted Sufandi’s proposal, although he knew he did not have the financial means to buy and finance the property.
Saiful also did not intend to comply with the conditions of the mortgage loan, which included paying monthly instalments.
Separately, Sufandi contacted a property agent who was facilitating X1’s sale on the seller’s behalf.
After negotiations, the seller agreed to sell it for $2.6 million but state an inflated sale price of $3.6 million on the conveyancing documents. She was told by the property agent that this was to allow Saiful to obtain a higher bank loan.
Sufandi then obtained forged documents, including a fabricated Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore notice of assessment under Saiful’s name showing that he purportedly had an annual income of $458,000 in 2013.
These documents were then sent to a bank to dupe it into disbursing a $2.88 million loan to fund the purchase of X1.
Saiful later met a bank officer and signed documents linked to the loan dated Feb 2, 2015.
The DPPs told the court: “The sale of X1 was eventually not completed as (the bank) discovered that Saiful’s income documents were forged and cancelled the application before any loans were disbursed.”
The property was also not transferred to Saiful, the court heard.
He was arrested on Dec 2, 2019, and was released on bail later that day.
On Oct 12, 2020, officers from the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) spotted him in the ground-floor lift lobby of a building, details of which were redacted from court documents.
They searched his bag and found seven packets of a crystalline substance later found to contain methamphetamine.
The officers arrested Saiful, whose urine samples were later found to contain traces of meth.
He was charged in court and released on bail in December 2020.
On Sept 13, 2021, he pleaded guilty to drug consumption but absconded before his slated sentencing on Oct 12 that year.
On Aug 15, 2024, CNB officers re-arrested Saiful.
His urine samples were later found to contain traces of meth, and he was not allowed bail. - The Straits Times/ANN
