Two Filipinos have been jailed for submitting fake payslips to secure Stanchart credit cards
A fake payslip submitted by a credit card applicant turned out be the tip of an iceberg for a S$760,000 scam, all thanks to a check by a sharp-eyed bank officer.
The applicant’s annual salary was discovered to have been inflated to meet the S$60,000 needed to get a Standard Chartered Bank (Stanchart) card, and it was not a sole case.
On Monday, a direct sales agent at telemarketing firm Touch & Tech and an applicant, both Filipinos, were jailed after pleading guilty to conspiring to use fake payslips and employment letters, reported The Straits Times (ST).
The whole team at Touch & Tech is said to have forged payslips and employment contracts to qualify applicants for cards and loans, a move that would earn extra commission and bank bonuses for the marketing firm.
As the firm’s direct sales agent, Charon Legaspi Dimpas, 26, would make cold calls to prospective applicants, but many failed to meet the bank’s criteria. Her team manager Abdul Karim Baba, a Singaporean, is alleged to have then encouraged her to inflate the monthly income of applicants.
In total, Dimpas submitted fake documents for 96 applicants from June to November last year, earning S$8,474 in commission. The agent also submitted false letters for extension of employment because applicants needed a minimum of one year remaining on their employment passes.
The second to be jailed is a 39-year-old applicant, Maria Theresa Arena Garcia, who was an administrative operations executive with an employment agency in 2009.
Besides inflating her payslip from its original S$2,600 to S$5,180, she also used fake documents to apply for a loan.
Another Filipino applicant, Mark Robert Fajilan Landicho, is alleged to have referred applicants to Dimpas after getting his own successful application by posting an advertisement on a Filipino website
PinoySG.com - The Filipino Portal in Singapore - Home. He promised readers that he could help them get Stanchart loans and credit cards even if they were “low wage earners”.
Most of the applicants worked as hospital or clinic staff, or in the administrative or accounting sectors.
The court heard that Stanchart, who engaged Touch & Tech to market its credit cards, had lent nearly S$760,000 to the 96 applicants.
Dimpas has been sentenced to three years and nine months imprisonment while Garcia was jailed for six months.
For providing false documents to the bank, both women could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined up to S$10,000. Cases involving seven accomplices who had been charged will be heard at a later date.