CHANNEL NEWSASIA
SINGAPORE: A punter who cheated the Marina Bay Sands casino of S$31,500 (US$24,800) with the help of a dealer was sentenced on Monday to 54 months jail.
Thirty-two-year-old Tan Tiong Loon is the first person to ever be convicted and sentenced for being in cahoots with a dealer to cheat a local casino.
He committed the offence at around 4.30am on October 7 last year while he was out on bail for another offence.
The unemployed man had earlier been hauled to court for being in a conspiracy to dishonestly retain and dispose 17 stolen cars worth more than S$860,000 in all.
For dealing with the cars, on top of the jail term, Tan was also disqualified on Monday from driving all classes of vehicles for three years after his release.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ruth Wong told the court that Tan had approached a former dealer supervisor, Keith Yong Kee-Hwei on October 5 and asked him to rig game results.
Tan also offered to give him half his winnings.
DPP Wong said that Yong did not agree at first but relented when he was approached again two days later.
Court papers stated that Yong had used his hand to intentionally manipulate a money wheel on two separate occasions that day – with the results in Tan’s favour.
But the truth came to light after an unknown Chinese man spotted the pair committing the offence.
He lodged a complaint with a duty pit manager and the authorities were notified.
The 24-year-old Yong has already been charged in court and will be dealt with at a later date.
Tan, who pleaded guilty on Monday to six of the 26 charges against him, also admitted that he was a member of a syndicate that dealt with stolen cars between January and March last year.
It operated under a firm known as Reliance Car Export.
Most of the cases involved 15 Malaysia-registered stolen cars which were sent to a workshop there to have their plates changed.
The vehicles were then driven to Singapore before they were exported to Brunei.
Three members of the syndicate had been dealt with in court earlier.
One of them, 29-year-old Ho Wei Siang was sentenced to a year’s jail.
Two of his accomplices, Walter Goh Chong Han and Patrix Chiam Khiang Wee, both 33, were each sentenced to two years’ jail.