Man Who Spent $200k That Suddenly Appeared in his Bank Accounts Jailed for 6 Months

Like we’ve said many times before: when money falls out from the sky, that’s great, but you’d better check where it came from.

Maybe Lady Luck is really shining on you and decided that you deserve that coin. Good for you! But other times, you might not be so lucky.

When you start to receive tens of thousands, heck, even hundreds of thousands in your bank account, that’s not Lady Luck. That’s just your bank account being implicated.

On Monday (8 Mar), Muhammad Riduan Muhammad Rasyid, a security officer, was sentenced to six months’ jail for dishonestly using over S$200,000 that had magically appeared in his bank accounts.

For not reporting the huge sums of deposits into his bank account and using the money for his own purposes, he had pleaded guilty to one charge of dishonest misappropriation of property. Another similar charge was also taken into consideration.

According to CNA, Riduan had been receiving sums of money from people he did not know to his Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) bank account, from January to June 2015. This amounted to a total of S$71,980.

He had used the cash for his expenses on medical bills, clothes, bags, mobile phones and clubbing. There was no report made to OCBC or the police.

Between October 2014 and April 2015, he also received a whopping S$148,162 in his Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) account. This was the other charge taken into consideration.

Implicated in Love Scams; Account Traced to Riduan’s

The mystery was finally solved in May 2015 when several members of the public lodged police reports as they had fallen victim to love scams. They were instructed to deposit sums of money into an OCBC account and later realised that they had fallen for a scam.

The account was ultimately traced to Riduan’s.

The prosecutor had asked for six months’ jail, while the defence noted that Riduan was the sole breadwinner of the family consisting of his wife and child, as well as his mother-in-law who had medical problems.

The court had heard earlier that Riduan was a security officer at the time of his offences, earning $1,300 a month.

However, District Judge Eddy Tham pointed out that Riduan knew that the money was not his and should have reported it to the relevant authorities. The money should not have been used for his own purposes, especially since it’s “not a small sum. It’s over S$200,000”.

The judge also mentioned that no recompensation had been made to the victims of the love scam, whose money he used.

For dishonest misappropriation of property, he could have been jailed for up to two years, fined, or both.

So, now you know. If money suddenly appears in your bank account one day, it might bring you either riches or rags (in jail).

Feature Image: Titipong Chumsung / Shutterstock.com