Man jailed for transferring money from mother without permission
A former Grab driver who set up an Internet banking account for his mother without her approval, then withdrew money from it, was yesterday jailed for three months and fined $2,000.
Wong Wei Jie, 28, pleaded guilty to two charges under the Computer Misuse Act, with another similar charge taken into consideration.
In November 2018, Wong was unable to pay off the loans he owed to unlicensed moneylenders.
He had previously taken a loan from his 55-year-old mother and knew she had money in her bank account.
He told her he wanted to set up an Internet banking account for her, claiming it was to allow him to repay her the money he owed.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Chng Luey Chi said that while explaining the details of the Internet bank account to his mother, he asked for her POSB Debit Card and copied the card number.
DID NOT WANT ACCOUNT
Even though his mother had told him she did not want an Internet banking account, as she was uncomfortable with it, he created it anyway using her POSB debit card details.
He registered a username and password for it, and received the security token several days later.
DPP Chng said: "At no point in time did the accused inform the victim that he had created an Internet banking account for her."
On Nov 7, Wong logged into his mother's bank account and transferred $4,000 to his own account.
The next day, Wong's brother-in-law made a police report stating that there had been an unauthorised transfer of funds from the victim's bank account.
Wong has since made restitution of $2,000 to his mother.
In mitigation, Wong's lawyer said the incident had resulted in the breakdown of his relationship with his mother and has affected his family life.
The lawyer added Wong had to get help from his friends to make restitution as his income had been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
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