Woman lied to cops she was robbed after lending $6,700 to executive chef at her workplace

Shaffiq Alkhatib
The Straits Times
September 28, 2023

To maintain a good working relationship with an executive chef at her workplace, a waitress agreed to lend him the $6,700 he had requested, even though she did not want to do so.

Joyce Tan Hwee Leng then cooked up a tale, claiming that two men had robbed her of the money and even made a police report about the purported incident.

On Thursday, Tan, 35, pleaded guilty to giving false information to the authorities and was fined $2,000.

The case is the third one reported in The Straits Times in September involving offenders who lied to the authorities.

The court heard that the executive chef had asked Tan for the loan on or around March 14.

She called him at around 8.20pm two days later on March 16, asking him to meet her near her home to collect the money.

He agreed but later told her that he would get the cash from her at their workplace the next day.

That night, Tan went out to smoke near Block 504C Yishun Street 51.

At around 10.20pm, she called the police and lied that she was robbed by two men who had approached her for a cigarette.

She told the police: “They pointed what looked like a small knife and took my money.”

Two police officers arrived at the scene soon after and Tan continued with her lies, claiming that the two “robbers” were either Malay or Indian and were around 20 to 30 years old.

She also claimed that they were wearing blue masks.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Kathy Chu told the court: “The accused said she gave the duo her wallet, but they took her bag and took the money inside amounting to $6,700.

“The accused said they told her not to move and not to scream, and that the two male subjects had walked towards the direction of Block 504C.”

Police resources were deployed to investigate the case, before Tan finally came clean about what she had done about three hours later.

DPP Chu said: “The accused gave inconsistent accounts to the police. When questioned further, the accused broke down and admitted that she had given false information to the police, as she did not want to lend the chef money and wanted to come up with an excuse to tell him.”

In a separate case, Nicole Chng Jin Wen, 28, was sentenced to six weeks’ jail on Tuesday after she pleaded guilty to offences including giving false information to a policewoman.

She and her then boss had lodged police reports on May 24, 2017, falsely accusing the latter’s former boyfriend of assaulting them.

Six days later, Chng lodged a complaint to a magistrate over the purported assault.

In another case on Sept 20, Siti Junaidah Azahar, 22, pleaded guilty to one count of giving false information to a public servant.

She had consensual sex with two of her colleagues in 2021, but claimed they had raped her. She will be sentenced in November.