SINGAPORE — Former tour guide Yang Yin will stay behind bars for three more years, after the prosecution successfully appealed to increase his jail term from six to nine years, for misappropriating S$1.1 million from an elderly widow.

Including another 26-month jail term for 120 charges mainly for falsifying receipts to gain permanent residency, Yang would be spending 11 years and two months in jail.

In his judgment delivered on Friday (March 3), Justice Tay Yong Kwang painted Yang, 42, as a cunning man who saw the wealthy widow — who was vulnerable due to social isolation — as easy prey. “He eased his way smoothly, cunningly and methodically into her life over time, and then into her accounts to siphon off her assets. He knew about her love for art and was therefore able to capitalise on this knowledge to conceal the illegal outflow of her money,” he said. 

“Despite this, he claimed audaciously and shamelessly that he was a caring man looking after the needs of the victim.”

Last year, Yang pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal breach of trust, in which he cheated Mdm Chung Khin Chun, 90, of S$500,000 and S$600,000 on separate occasions between February 2010 and January 2012. His admission came after 11 days of trial, during which he vacillated between admitting and denying the two charges. He was sentenced to six years’ jail for the misappropriation.

In 2010, Mdm Chung entrusted Yang with S$500,000 to buy a painting by renowned Chinese painter Xu Bei Hong, but Yang bought a fake painting valued at around S$200 instead.  He covered up a second instance of cheating the widow of S$600,000 by producing falsified receipts showing that he had bought five paintings for a similar sum. 

During the appeal on Friday, the prosecution argued that Yang had failed to properly account for the proceeds of his crime, and money had been spirited out of Singapore. “This is elderly financial abuse as its most egregious,” said chief prosecutor Tan Ken Hwee. 

The lower court had failed to place sufficient weight on the fact that Mdm Chung’s wealth had been depleted to “almost nothing” after meeting Yang. Her S$2.7 million in liquid assets had dwindled to less than S$10,000 between early 2010 and August 2014, said the prosecution. 

But Yang’s lawyer Irving Choh said that his client had already accepted his sentence, and had not filed a cross-appeal. “He just wants to finish it as a foreigner living in Singapore. He wants to get it over and done with. There’s no tactical manoeuvre whatsoever,” said Mr Choh.

Justice Tay felt that the district judge had been right in stating that he could only sentence Yang based on his charges, and that was limited to the S$1.1 million that had been misappropriated. 

But he noted that these offences were merely part of an “elaborate scheme” to possess all of the widow’s assets. In a 2010 will, Mdm Chung had left her entire estate — worth millions — to Yang. The will has since been set aside by the court.

If the estate had gone to Yang, he would have been elevated to “such heights of wealth”, that he would probably not have to work for the rest of his life, noted Justice Tay.

“Here was a man who obviously believed that he was smarter than the law, even when his game has been meticulously exposed by the very commendable work of the investigators, he continued to play out his desire to beat the system,” he said.

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Mdm Chung’s niece Hedy Mok said that she felt the judge had been very sharp and fair in his decision.