Man jailed 5 years for cheating 6 women he befriended online of nearly $440,000
A serial conman who befriended six women from dating websites and sweet-talked them into handing him almost $440,000 was jailed five years on Tuesday (26 February).
Peter Aw Boo Cheong, 47, lied to the women aged 39 to 50 that he could invest on their behalf for a profit or that he need the money for business reasons. Instead, he used the money to fuel his gambling habit.
It wasn’t the first time that the permanent resident from Malaysia had resorted to cheating women in this manner. In 2013, Aw was jailed 14 months after he wooed and conned four women he knew on dating websites into parting with $55,000.
Aw was sentenced at the State Courts for his latest offences on Tuesday after having earlier pleaded guilty to 17 out of 41 cheating charges. The remaining counts were considered for his sentencing.
In asking for the five-year jail term, Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Hsiao Tien had earlier told the court, “The accused has shown himself to be a recalcitrant serial cheat who is bent on cheating women for his personal benefits.”
Pretended to be experienced trader
In 2016, Aw met a 50-year-old victim via dating app Tinder. He used a pseudonym and was known to the victim as “Daniel”. They entered into a romantic relationship.
Aw portrayed himself as an experienced trader in silver and told the victim that he could reap high profits for her. But Aw was never a trader nor had he ever made any investments in foreign currencies and commodities as he had claimed to the victim.
Believing his tall tales, the victim parted with $17,250 in May 2016.
Two days later, Aw told her that he needed cash to help a client for an investment, and that he would get back the money and repay her in three days. Believing him, she handed over $20,000, but never saw her money again.
The next month, Aw also lied that he needed $20,000 to help a client buy a horse in Perth.
In all, Aw duped the victim into parting with $68,250 over seven occasions between May and June 2017. She has yet to get a single cent back.
DPP Tan said, “The accused practised the same modus operandi on all his victims, similar to that in his antecedents (in 2013).
“He exploited his victims’ interests in him as either a close friend or a romantic partner, as well as their misplaced trust in him as an experienced and credible trader. This is clearly a premeditated and deliberate course of conduct to deceive his victims into delivering monies to him.”
Aw has made a “minimal restitution” of $500 to one victim, said the DPP.
For each of his 17 cheating charges, Aw could have been jailed for up to 10 years along with a fine.
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