A 33-year-old man has been sentenced to 7½ years’ jail after cheating 21 victims, including his own father and friends, of more than S$3.8 million.
Sebastian Lim Qian Ji was sentenced on 30 September after he had earlier pleaded guilty to eight counts of cheating and an unrelated traffic offence. Another 26 charges were considered during sentencing.
According to The Straits Times, the court had heard in August that around S$860,000 had been returned to some victims, leaving total losses of about S$2.9 million.
He Was Trying to Help a Friend’s Frozen-Food Business
The offences began after Lim agreed to help a friend, Gerald Lee Hai Rui, obtain loans.
Lee, 32, was the sole director of Geroy, a frozen-food company that was facing financial trouble in early 2021. Prosecutors said Lee had asked Lim for help to obtain loans from Lim’s friends.
Lim then cheated multiple victims between February 2021 and September 2022.
The victims were not random strangers. They included Lim’s father, friends and other people who trusted the people around them enough to part with large sums of money.
He Claimed There Were Projects That Needed Funding
In one case, Lim cheated a married couple who were his secondary school friends.
The couple, both 33, were told that Lim was involved in projects connected to places such as the Singapore Sports Hub. He claimed the projects needed funding, and that if they loaned money to Geroy, they would eventually get their principal back.
He also claimed that they would receive returns that were much higher than market rates.
The court heard that there were no such projects.
The couple handed Lim S$694,100 over at least six occasions between December 2021 and March 2022. Lim has since returned S$226,500 to them.
His Father’s Friends Also Handed Over Money
Lim also lied to his 59-year-old father in early 2022.
He told his father that he was involved in projects that needed funding, and claimed that his father would receive attractive returns if money was loaned to Geroy.
His father did not know the claims were false. He then told three of his friends about the supposed opportunity.
The three friends believed the claims and handed Lim’s father a total of S$430,000 across multiple occasions. Lim’s father then passed the money to him.
Prosecutors Said Some Returns Helped Keep the Scheme Going
Although about S$860,000 was eventually returned to some victims, prosecutors said in earlier proceedings that the repayments were not made voluntarily out of remorse.
Instead, they said the money was returned to gain victims’ trust so that Lim could continue cheating them.
The prosecution also said Lim used some of the money to gamble and to pay the frozen-food company’s creditors.
To avoid detection, Lim told victims to pass him cash or transfer money through intermediaries, including his mother and his then-girlfriend. These intermediaries would then pass the money to him.
He Also Drove While Disqualified
Lim’s case also involved an unrelated traffic offence.
The court heard that he had previously been convicted of drink driving and was disqualified from holding or obtaining all classes of driving licences from 22 December 2022 to 21 December 2024.
Despite this, he drove a car and got into an accident on 17 November 2024. He was arrested 11 days later.
On 30 September, Lim was also disqualified from holding or obtaining all classes of driving licences for four years from his release date.
