By Khushwant Singh
AN UNEMPLOYED man would tell residents in the Bukit Timah area
that he was with the garbage collection company and there would be
no waste collection the next day as the truck driver had died.
Vijayakumar Ramalingam, 47, would then claim that he was also
going around collecting bereavement donations for his dead
colleague's family. None of this was true and on Monday, he was
jailed 11/2 months and fined $4,500 for cheating residents of $622.
If unable to pay the fine, the conman will serve another 30 days in
prison.
A district court heard that residents in Lorong Pisang Batu,
Binjai Park, Namly Hill, Fifth Avenue and Hua Guan Avenue handed
over sums ranging from $2 to $250 on the four evenings Vijayakumar
went around. He would even carry a blue notebook containing entries
of amounts he claimed were donated by neighbours and in which he
would jot down subsequent donations.
The victims grew suspicious when the garbage truck came around
the next day. When they called the garbage company, the residents
found out that none of the drivers had died recently.
Police were notified and Vijayakumar was arrested. Cash of $170,
a pen and the blue notebook was seized from him by officers.
He pleaded guilty to six cheating charges. Another cheating
charge and three attempted charges were taken into consideration by
the District Judge Jill Tan in sentencing. Two of the attempted
cheating offences were committed while he was on police bail after
his arrest on Nov 24.
