www.shaproperty.com

Sometimes, the property agency itself 'hired' the buyer to prove they had steady jobs and could service their mortgage.

 

Maybank, one of the banks approached by the buyers, however, became suspicious and alerted the authorities.

 

It is the latest scam to hit an industry which has come under fire in the past two years for rampant illegal cashback deals. Under that arrangement, the home buyer and seller would inflate the property price - with the aid of the housing agent and property valuer - so the buyer could get a bigger loan than he actually needed to buy the unit. The seller and the agent would go along with the scam to close the deal or get a share of the money.

 

Two housing agents were fined $8,000 last year for cashback deals.

 

The seven agents jailed on Thursday were convicted of cheating and abetting cheating in 2003 and 2004. They were jailed for one to nine months each.

 

Syed Abdullah Alhamid, 63, a top agent with property specialist ERA Singapore, was jailed for one month.

 

Mohammed Rusli Abdul Rahman, 39, another ERA agent, was jailed for five months for offences committed when he was with Singapore's biggest agency, Propnex.

 

Tan Boon Yok, 42, who ran his own agency, Wen Siw Enterprise, received the longest sentence - nine months. His firm produced employment letters for flat buyers to support their loan applications. He even set up a shell company called Larkosa Advertising to 'hire' buyers.

 

The other convicted agents were:

Hamidah Yunnan, 52, who was jailed for eight months. She was Tan's assistant.

Tumirah Rahman, 42, who was jailed for four months. She was an employee of Places Property Consultants.

Zainon Aran, 39, who was Tumirah's colleague. She was jailed for one month.

Lastly, Richard Yan Hwee Oon, 44, was also jailed for a month.

 

They could have each been fined and jailed for seven years.

 

The buyers of 12 three- and four-room flats are believed to be involved too. Police have yet to decide what action to take against them.

 

A number of buyers, who had their loan applications rejected by Maybank, subsequently got their loans from OCBC Bank.

 

A Maybank spokesman said the ruse was uncovered during 'due diligence' checks when processing home loans, but declined to disclose more details. But sources said the buyers could not give their office addresses and telephone numbers when quizzed.

The head of secured lending at OCBC, Mr Gregory Chan, told The Straits Times: 'When processing home loan applications, we have checks and controls to ascertain that the information given is genuine.'

 

Both ERA and Propnex have vowed to tighten checks in weeding out fake employment documents.