Jerald Low Jing Yong is only 27, but has already racked up quite a list of targets he has scammed and cheated over the years. Including his own mother.
He once posed as the son of a rich Korean family looking to buy a luxury property in Singapore. He dyed his hair and introduced himself as “Park Joon Hyung.”
But his swindling days have come to an end, at least for now.
On Wednesday (Mar 16), Jerald Low Jing Yong pleaded guilty to 16 out of 51 charges, most of which were for cheating. The other charges were taken into consideration in his sentencing. He will have to serve 67 months in jail and pay a $1,800 fine.
Once he is released, he will also be barred from driving for 12 months.
Low is responsible for cheating his victims of more than $154,000 and has only paid back a scant $100.
District Judge Soh Tze Bian called him “a habitual swindler with no remorse,” CNA reports.
Jerald Low Jing Yong swindling spree, which took place from 2017 to 2020, began when he met a man identified only as Louis, who was studying at National University of Singapore.
Jerald Low Jing Yong pretended that he was a medical student there and Louis agreed to sign up for mobile lines for Low’s “twin brother,” who Low claimed would pay for the lines.
There was no such twin, and when Low grew irritated with Louis’ persistently asking for payment, he hired a lawyer to intimidate the NUS student.
In the following year, Low stepped up his game, this time by issuing cheques to his own bank account so that increases to his balance would show.
Yahoo!News reports that he also took a cheque from his mother’s UOB chequebook and forged her signature on a cheque for a cool trillion dollars. He then deposited the amount to his own OCBC account.
The bank discovered that the mother’s account was already closed, but it was possible that a withdrawal of more than $2.5 million could have been made temporarily available in Low’s bank balance because of the transaction, and the bank filed a police report.
Jerald Low Jing Yong’s deception also wreaked havoc on a woman suffering from bipolar disorder. Sometime before October 2018, Low set up a shell company called Fitness Tea and hired the 35-year-old woman who had applied for a job at the company.
A day after he met her, he registered his marriage and later cheated her into signing up for phone lines for him, which he never paid for.
The woman introduced her brother to Low, hoping to get a job for him at Fitness Tea. But Low used her brother’s NRIC number and driving licence to apply for an account at a car rental service.
The woman said to her brother that Low, whom she described as the company’s CEO, had proposed to her and would make her the company’s manager.
Later, after her brother’s wife told her that Low is a scammer, the woman had a relapse of her mental illness.
In 2019, he added a new scheme to his cheating arsenal.
Dyeing his hair and calling himself “Park Joon Hyung,” Low issued 13 cheques to property sellers with values of over $2 million to pay for at least seven properties, none of which he could afford to buy.
In the same year, to set up another account at a car rental service, he also used the driving license and NRIC number of a man with whom he had been in an accident in 2018.
Low also swindled several men he met on dating apps and forums by getting them to signi up for phone lines for him. He lied repeatedly to the men. He would claim to be the son of a man working in the oil and gas industry in Korea, or tell them that his mother owned a spa, and persuade them that he was starting several businesses.
His modus operandi was to hire vehicles and drive around with his dates, expressing the desire to have serious relationships with them.
One was a 25-year-old man named Timothy. Low manipulated him into signing sales agreements for vehicles worth more than $2.5 million.
In 2020, he persuaded a man named Desmond to pretend that he had been responsible for Low’s offences. At that point, Low had already been charged in court and had made bail.
Low filed a police report in which he lied that Desmond had been the one who told tell him to commit the offences. He also claimed that he had been raped by Desmond more than 15 times, and that Desmonf had also threatened his family.
Shortly before he pleaded guilty on Jan 21 of this year, he also forged a medical certificate.
Seeking a 68-month jail sentence, the prosecution said of Low: “The accused’s conduct was sustained, pre-meditated and well-planned. He preyed on victims who were looking for companionship on social media and dating applications, and then systematically abused their trust.
“The accused has demonstrated that he is a recalcitrant offender who has no qualms breaking the law to suit his needs.”
/TISG
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