SINGAPORE — The man convicted of killing his lover at Gardens by the Bay East in 2016 appeared in court via video-link on Tuesday (July 23), in order to face cheating and embezzlement charges.

Leslie Khoo Kwee Hock, 51, was found guilty in the High Court last week of murdering 31-year-old Chinese engineer Cui Yajie. On July 12, 2016, he had strangled her in his car at a secluded spot, then burned her body in Lim Chu Kang over three days.

He has not been sentenced yet, and faces either the death penalty or life in prison.

On Tuesday, his lawyer Mervyn Cheong told District Judge Terence Tay that they have to file sentencing submissions on the murder conviction by Aug 2. No date has been set for the murder sentencing.

Khoo was charged in February — a month before his murder trial began — with two counts of criminal breach of trust as a servant, and four other cheating charges.

He will return to the State Courts on Sept 24 in relation to these charges.

Court documents showed that Khoo, as a marketing manager of textiles and laundry company Kendo Services, allegedly pocketed S$18,600 of sales proceeds and payment of franchisee fees between January and October 2015.

Between May and June 2016, he is accused of similarly misappropriating another S$5,779 from Kendo Services.

He is also accused of swindling about S$65,000 from four other women by:

• Allegedly deceiving Ms Karen Kang Siew Yin around September 2015 into believing he owned the “Orchid” laundry business and she could invest in it, thus getting her to hand over S$30,000 in cash.

• Allegedly deceiving Ms Nancy Zhao Cui Lan in the same manner, and she handed over S$10,000 in cash.

• Allegedly deceiving Ms Lim Siew Li into believing she was a franchisee of Orchid Laundry. He is then said to have got her to transfer S$11,600 over four transactions into the bank account of Khoo’s wife, and about S$3,000 into Ms Kang’s bank account.

• Allegedly lying to Ms Zhang Hong that she could invest in one of his family’s laundry outlets and be his business partner. He is also accused of getting her to transfer 50,000 yuan (about S$10,400) to one Cui Jin’s bank account.

During the murder trial, the court heard that Khoo had borrowed S$20,000 from his murder victim for purported “gold investments”.

He later returned Cui S$10,000 in early July 2016, using money he had received from Ms Zhang Hong, with whom he was intimate.

Ms Kang also took the stand during the trial to recount how she borrowed S$10,000 from her sister and S$20,000 from her brother to “invest” with Khoo.

Ms Zhao testified that she was not Khoo’s lover, but met him through a friend at a church party and believed she was investing in his laundry business.

Khoo was a retail outlet manager at laundry company Dryclyn Express. However, he repeatedly lied to Cui that he owned the firm.

He previously served 16 months in jail in 2011 for criminal breach of trust.