Ex-HR sales agent jailed for cheating company of over S$30,000

SINGAPORE: A former human resources sales agent who cheated a client into paying him S$31,020 (US$22,850) to hire workers was jailed for one year and two weeks on Monday (Dec 30).

Lim Yi Xiang, 29, pleaded guilty to two charges of cheating and one charge of absconding. He had skipped bail while under investigation for his cheating offences.

Two other cheating charges were considered for sentencing.

The court heard that Lim was working as a sales sub-agent for HR firm Weistum Advisory, which eventually filed a police report against him.

Sales sub-agents were supposed to approach clients and pitch Weistum’s HR services to them. If a client was interested, Weistum’s director would draft a contract that the sub-agent would get the client to sign.

In 2019, Lim responded to an online advertisement put up by the director of a trading company who wished to hire four workers.

Lim told the director he could assist him in recruiting four workers and also obtain two government grants for the company.

For one grant called Career Trial, Lim said Weistum would prepare course materials for the new employees and the director simply had to check their contents to be eligible for a grant of S$28,800.

He asked the director to pay Weistum 30 per cent of the grant, or S$8,640, as well as S$4,640 for the recruitment of the four workers.

For the other grant, P Max, Lim told the director that it entailed the new employees being sent for courses conducted by the government.

He said the client would receive a grant of S$30,000 after the courses were completed, and requested payment of S$17,740 to Weistum.

The director agreed to these terms, and Lim got a physical copy of a contract template used by Weistum, which bore Weistum’s director’s signature.

He doctored the document by using correction tape to cover up the fields stating Weistum’s company bank account number and then scanned it.

He then filled up the blank bank account number fields with his personal bank account number. He gave this contract to the director of the trading company, who signed it.

The client went on to pay Lim a total of S$31,020 in bank transfers and cash between November 2019 and March 2020.

But the client became suspicious after Lim persistently failed to provide the services he had promised.

In January 2021, the client made a query with Weistum. He learnt that the firm only charged S$5,760 to apply for the Career Trial grant, and did not charge any fees for P Max.

On Jan 27, 2021, Weistum’s director reported Lim to the police for offering HR consultancy services to clients using Weistum’s name and receiving payments directly.

After this, Lim became the subject of three separate police investigations in 2021. The police tried to contact him through calls, messages and visits to his home so that he could assist with investigations.

When they could not locate him, they issued three police gazettes for his arrest in July, August and November 2021.

Lim was eventually arrested on Feb 4, 2022, and released on bail. As part of his bail, he had a duty to surrender himself to custody and be available for investigations.

On Mar 15, 2022, he failed to report to the police for investigations and became uncontactable.

After he absconded, three more police gazettes for his arrest were issued in October and November 2023 and this March. Lim was arrested again on Jun 25.

He also admitted to a separate offence in March 2021 of cheating a delivery rider of S$550 for an electric bicycle sold on Carousell, which he never delivered.

Lim did not make any restitution to his victims.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Teo Siu Ming asked for a year and two weeks to a year and four weeks in jail for Lim.

She said that Lim’s use of a doctored contract and the prolonged period of deception showed that his offences were deliberate and premeditated.

Ms Teo said Lim also abused the trust of the client and Weistum, which trusted him to perform his job properly.

Lim, who did not have a lawyer, told the court he was divorced with two children and asked for a lighter sentence so he could leave prison and support his family.

He said he was remorseful, but District Judge Paul Chan said that an offender who is genuinely remorseful would not go on the run and evade investigations.

The penalty for cheating is up to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine. As one of Lim’s charges was amalgamated, any punishment he received for his cheating offences could have been doubled.

The punishment for absconding from bail is up to three years’ imprisonment, or a fine, or both.