23-6-2023 (SINGAPORE) Woman sentenced to 31 months in jail for cheating buyers of Pokemon cards and mobile phones: Koh Jia Wen, 26, was sentenced to 31 months in jail on Thursday after pleading guilty to four counts of cheating. Koh used her account on the e-marketplace Carousell to promote the sale of Pokemon cards, which were typically sold in cases, where each case would hold six boxes that contained 36 packs of cards each.
Koh would direct interested buyers to deposit a 50% deposit into various bank accounts, none of which belonged to her because she had been blacklisted from opening new bank accounts. Koh did not deliver any cards to the buyers and received deposits of close to S$80,000 (US$60,000) and S$20,840 (US$15,550) from two buyers. Koh also plotted to get new iPhone sets from Singtel by getting someone to sign subscription contracts and did not pay the bills.
Thirteen other similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing. Seeking 26 to 29 months’ jail for Koh, defence lawyer Azri Imran Tan urged the court to consider the lighter sentence, saying that Koh was still a relatively young adult whose husband just had a major surgery, and they have an infant daughter.
