Woman Brought Son & Went House-to-House to Cheat People for ‘Hospital Fees’

How far would you go for money?

Going against your own morals and principles?

Turning to illegal means?

Or perhaps…

Bringing your own son along as the focal point of your scam?

If you find yourself gasping at my accusation, I regret to inform you that the last point isn’t just a distinct impossibility…

But very much a reality.

And so without further ado, I present this article:

Woman Brought Son & Went House-to-House to Cheat People for ‘Hospital Fees’

According to Channel NewsAsia, a 38-year-old woman, whose name cannot be revealed due to a court-imposed gag order, has been convicted of tricking five people who lived in Singapore’s north-east of between S$100 and S$150 in May and June last year.

She reportedly went from house to house with her young son, cheating people with fabricated “medical bills”.

In one of the incidents on 16 June last year, the woman went to several households at an HDB block with her young son, requesting for money.

Informing a resident that another son of hers was in KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, she said that she needed $120 for transport and to settle his medical bill.

After the man drew out his wallet, she noticed that he had only an S$10 note and S$50 notes and proceeded to request for S$150, stating that she lived in the unit above his and would return the amount.

This, as you could probably tell, was a lie, but she got what she wanted; the man went on to hand the cash to her.

I mean, if a mother cries in front of you because her young son’s sick, won’t you melt and give whatever you can, too?

And it didn’t end there

On 25 Nov last year, the woman actually committed a crime alongside her husband and son.

En route via Grab Hitch ride, the trio stole the driver’s Lenovo laptop, as well as accessories totalling S$4,000.

The son is a co-accused in this case, alongside his parents.

A few months later, the woman stole S$480 over five occasions from the cash register, while working as a cashier at a supermarket in north-east Singapore.

Serial criminal, she is.

Out of desperation

The woman eventually pleaded guilty to four charges that include cheating, theft and criminal breach of trust as a servant.

Another three charges were taken into consideration as well.

Last Thursday (6 June 2019), the woman’s defence lawyer argued that the woman had four school-aged children and that she had performed the acts “out of desperation”.

Since then, she has tried her best to repay the S$1,054 she took from the various victims but was ultimately only able to return S$574. Additionally, the laptop was recovered and “there was no harm to the victim”.

“The defendant only did it because of her financial situation, because she was trying to help out her family,” said the defence, which added that she was remorseful.

The prosecution, however, responded by stating that the recovery of the laptop was “entirely fortuitous”, and was only possible due to the efforts of the police.

And district judge Luke Tan concurred, saying that the woman was “preying on the kindness of strangers”, and even involved her son in the process.

She was eventually jailed for six months.

How far would you go?

Financial problems might be a situation dogging multiple households, but that really begets the question:

Just how far would you go to procure financial means?

Because in the end…

It might just turn against you, depending on the method you chose to adopt in the process.