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YOU could say he was a bank robber with a difference.

Instead of a gun, he hit banks with just a simple plan. And it made him $2.1 million richer – until the law caught up with him.

Quah Lai Meng, 33, was working in a handphone shop when he noticed what he thought was a chink in the armour of the banking industry – the cashline facility.

Through this facility, banks provide ready cash to consumers who then repay the amount with interest.

In November 2007, Quah forged an application form for a DBS Cashline facility using the particulars of his friend, Luah Kian Hing. Luah has been charged and his case is pending.

DBS issued a credit card and cashline cheque book in Luah’s name but sent them to Quah’s address.

The credit limit was $5,000.

Quah, who has only PSLE qualifications, then executed his plan to defraud DBS, according to court documents.

Quah, who is single and was engaged to be married, withdrew the maximum $5,000 from the DBS Cashline account.

LIMIT REACHED

He knew that before he could make more withdrawals, he had to make repayments into the account since the credit limit had been reached.

He prepared several cheques, which belonged to some friends, to make payments into the account.

Court documents did not identify these friends nor explain the role they played in this scam.

These dud cheques belonged to accounts that had no money. His plan was to dupe DBS into thinking he had already settled his outstanding debts.

Quah knew it would take one to two days for the bank to realise this.

On 27 Dec 2007, he deposited a UOB cheque for $46,700 into the DBS Cashline account. Two days later, he went to the POSB branch at Hougang Central and withdrew $3,000.

It was easy money for him and he did it again on 9 Jan this year.

He deposited an OCBC cheque for $570,000 into the DBS Cashline account.

The next day, he got his sister-in-law, Lim Wee Ching, to withdraw $128,000 from the POSB branch at Hougang Central. He then got her to keep the money for him.

On another occasion, Quah got his brother, Lai Huat, to keep $200,000 for him. He had got the money as a result of cheating DBS.

Quah struck again on 15 Jan, at the POSB branch at Funan DigitaLife Mall. He left the branch with $240,000 in cash.

DBS finally got wind of what he was up to and lodged a police report.

- He is the Singapore lousy version of “Catch Me If You Can” the only difference is he did not forge the cheques, all these cheques belong to someone else which contains no money.

The weird thing is there is no alarm when he bank in cheques from empty accounts to his cash line account.

Does that means we can cash in a cheque from empty account to cash line account and the money will be available again to withdraw? Who is suppose to check if the cheque is valid?

27 Dec 2007 – deposited dud cheque of $46,700 into the DBS Cashline account

29 Dec 2007 – withdraw $3,000 himself

9 Jan 2008 – deposited dud cheque of $570,000 into the DBS Cashline account

10 Jan 2008 – withdraw $128,000 by his sister

15 Jan 2008 – withdraw $240,000 himself

DBS finally found out after 15 Jan 2008…

So, it took slightly more then 2 weeks to detect that the dud cheque that he deposited previously on the 27 Dec 2007 (After Christmas – must be overloaded with cheques) are invalid and quickly filed an police report!

From this case it had shown that one department is faster then the others.

Department A – Cheque clearing
—Data enter the $$$ amount into the stipulated account stated in the cheque quickly…obviously overloaded with cheques…they did not check the source balance before depositing the amount into the account. (Took about 1 working day to see pending balance in the ATM)

Department B – Fund transfer
—The guy trying to transfer funds from the source account are fighting fire as the source account(s) are empty!! They took more then 2 weeks to realize this!!? Maybe it’s not a human that does it…probably it’s automatic and some kind of warning pop-up are ignored by the bank officers?

“Error! Source account have inssuficient funds! Unable to deduct!”
“Error! Source account have inssuficient funds! Unable to deduct!”
“Error! Source account have inssuficient funds! Unable to deduct!”

Bank guys might just says “Yay! Another bounce cheque to penalize the guy! Bill the guy in the next bill!” then they wait for 1 month…by then…it’s too late.

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