Singapore — A man who cheated food delivery services of S$718.54 worth of orders for nearly three weeks was sentenced on Thursday (Sept 17) to a week in jail.
Leonard Tan Tong Han created fake accounts, ordered meals from food delivery apps, such as Foodpanda and GrabFood, and had them delivered to neighbouring apartments. He would then take the food and eat it, all without paying.
But his scheme eventually caught up with him.
Tan, 27, was charged with four counts of cheating. Nine more charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
Between Feb 25 and March 14 this year, Tan, who lives on the 14th floor of a building in Choa Chu Kang, had food delivered to the flats directly above and below his unit.
Without planning on paying for the orders, he chose the “cash on delivery” payment option. He would then message the delivery riders that he would pay for the meals later through PayLah! or PayNow and ask them to leave the food outside the addresses he had provided.
As soon as he saw that the riders had left the food, he would pick it up for himself.
And as he had used a fake name and phone number on the accounts he created, the riders could not reach him when they found out that he had not paid for the meals.
One example of his orders was cited by Channel NewsAsia. Tan, under the name “Sammy Leong”, ordered a meal from an eatery in Gangsa Road through the Foodpanda app on March 8.
Tan arranged for the meal to be brought to the flat below his, on the 13th floor, COD. The meal cost S$91.59.
“Leave food above shoe rack … picking kids up from hospital. Just sms me your paynow number I will paynow and whatsapp you,” he wrote when he placed his order.
The rider followed Tan’s instructions and left the food on the shoe rack. He left after sending a picture of the delivery to the number Tan had given. The rider returned later feeling that something had gone wrong when he did not get an answer to his text. However, the food was no longer there. When he asked the owner of the flat about the food, he was told that no such order had been placed but that there had been similar occurrences in the past.
This neighbour had, in fact, already reported to the police on Feb 25 when two pizza delivery orders were sent to his address.
The rider reported the incident to Foodpanda.
Tan has repaid Foodpanda and GrabFood in full for the meals. He will begin sentence on Oct 1. He could have been jailed for up to three years, fined or both, on each cheating charge. /TISG
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