SINGAPORE: A relationship manager at DBS Bank who cheated two bank customers, gaining more than S$200,000 for himself, was jailed for three years and 10 months on Thursday (Jun 6).
Liaw Tick Kwan, 37, met the victims, both retirees, separately while he was handling their investments at DBS.
He used the Internet banking security token of 73-year-old Chin Tian Loke to gain access to his account and make transfers of about US$102,700 (S$130,500).
He cheated the other customer, 67-year-old Chou Ching Ping, by lying to her that she had reaped money from one of his clients’ investments, and asking her to withdraw the sum so she would get even more profits.
Madam Chou withdrew about S$67,000 from her DBS account and handed the cash to Liaw.
Both were vulnerable victims, the prosecution said. Mr Chin’s highest education level was Secondary 4, while Mdm Chou’s was the equivalent of Singapore’s primary school level. Both relied on Liaw to manage their financial affairs and would not find it easy to recover their losses as retirees.
Liaw carried out the offences between 2013 and 2015, when he was first a relationship manager at DBS before moving to an equivalent role at Standard Chartered Bank in 2014.
He was arrested after Mr Chin checked with both banks on his suspicion of fraud and lodged a police report.
Liaw pleaded guilty to four charges including cheating, concealing benefits of crime and unauthorised access to computer material, with another two charges taken into consideration.
