Singapore Casino Cheats Sentenced Over $100,000 Chips Scam
September 12, 2011 12:22 pmA croupier and his two accomplices were handed down jail sentences after their $100,000 chip stealing con was eventually unearthed by a casino pit manager.
In the scam, Resorts Worlds Sentosa dealer Kent Oh Zhi Xiang, 33, would overpay his accomplices an extra $100 chip every time they changed their $500 or $1,000 chips into smaller denominations.
Father and son team Lim Chee Leng, 34, and Lim Eng Chin, 57, (pictured right) apparently managed to perform the deception more than 1,000 times over a four months period at the Singapore casino. The ill-gotten gains were then shared out equally between the dealer and the two men until fate eventually caught up with them after a tip-off was received by the casino from one of its customers.
Oh was subsequently seen on the Sentosa’s closed-circuit television overpaying his accomplices with the casino then alerting authorities to the crime.
During the trial, Senior District Judge See Kee Oon was told that croupier Kent Oh Zhi Xiang had first recruited his friend, the younger Lim, into the scam who then roped his taxi-driving father into the ill-fated venture, too.
Handing down sentences on the three men, the Judge concluded that Oh was the mastermind who organised the whole operation for “nefarious purpose” and that the two Lims had then “succumbed to temptation.”
Consequently, in July 2011 Kent Oh Zhi Xiang, who was facing up to 15 years in jail and a fine up to $10,000, was sentenced to two years in jail instead, while today unemployed Chee Leng and his father Lim Eng Chin both received 21 months each for conspiracy to commit criminal breach of trust.