SINGAPORE — Preying on the trust of his two clients, a former bank officer took more than S$200,000 from them through unauthorised transfers, blowing his ill-gotten gains on personal expenses.

Both of Liaw Tick Hwan’s victims were retirees who relied on their savings in bank accounts as their main sources of income. The victims, Mr Chin Tian Loke, 73, and Madam Chou Ching Ping, 67, did not know each other.

On Thursday (June 6) in the State Courts, Liaw, 37, was sentenced to three years and 10 months’ jail. He had pleaded guilty to five charges, including cheating and dealing with the benefits of his criminal activities.

Liaw was a relationship manager at DBS bank from November 2011 to May 2014, before moving to Standard Chartered Bank from June 2014 to May 2015.

ASKED FOR PERSONAL BANKING DATA

The court heard that Mr Chin, a former condominium maintenance officer, became his client while Liaw was working at DBS.

In August 2013, he helped Mr Chin to open a DBS Multi-Currency account to invest in foreign currencies.

Mr Chin then entrusted his Internet banking security token and personal identification number to Liaw, because Liaw said that he needed them to manage the older man’s investment-related transactions.

However, Liaw used the token to transfer about US$102,000 (S$130,000) in total to the bank accounts of his second victim, Mdm Chou, and Mean Chye International Investment. The latter was to pay for real estate in Cambodia bought under his wife’s name.

He siphoned the money from Mr Chin’s account on four occasions, from September 2013 to October 2014.

Liaw wanted to hide these transfers from DBS, as transferring the money to his own account would leave a paper trail. He also wanted to use the cash for his personal use.

When Liaw joined Standard Chartered in June 2014, he got Mr Chin to change banks. Liaw continued being his relationship manager there, while also being Mdm Chou’s.

Mdm Chou’s highest education level was high school in Taiwan, the equivalent of primary school in Singapore.

On Oct 29, 2014, Liaw then lied to Mdm Chou that he had deposited about S$67,000 of another client’s investment capital into her DBS account. In reality, the sum comprised S$42,000 of Mdm Chou’s own money and S$25,000 of Mr Chin’s money.

He told her that he would combine the other client’s money with her investments to reap higher profits for them.

He then got her to withdraw the total sum and hand the cash to him. She believed that he wanted to hand it to his other client, but he used it for his personal expenses.

CLIENT GREW SUSPICIOUS

About four months later, on March 9, 2015, Liaw tricked Mr Chin into signing a cheque for S$24,480. He told the older man it would be used to pay fees on Mr Chin’s behalf, but he again spent it on himself instead.

Liaw’s crimes began unravelling in May 2015. Mr Chin grew suspicious when Standard Chartered did not update him on the cheque, and he discovered that he had been cheated into delivering it when he approached the bank without Liaw.

After Mr Chin found out that Liaw also cheated him while working at DBS, he made a police report on May 14.

Later that month, when Liaw found out he had been caught, he told Mr Chin he was leaving Standard Chartered.

Liaw has since made partial restitution of the money involved. He paid Standard Chartered the S$24,480 between July and September 2015, and in April last year, he paid back US$10,300 to Mr Chin.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Norman Yew sought at least four years and four months’ jail for Liaw, noting that he not only abused the trust his clients had in him, but the banks’ trust.

He said that Liaw also paid back less than one-fifth of the losses he had caused, which totalled just over S$201,000.

In mitigation, Liaw’s lawyer Kalidass Murugaiyan told the court that his client came clean to Standard Chartered even before the police came into the picture. He added that Liaw will not be employed in the finance industry again, and has also not committed more offences since then.

“This shows that he can be reintegrated into society… his young family awaits him,” the lawyer said.