Yes, we're a country of bargain-hunters and haggling shoppers but 39-year-old Yusri Abdul Wahab probably takes the award for Top Cheapskate of the Month.
The former pest control officer pretended to be a policeman to obtain the contact details of sex workers in Geylang in the hope that they'd give him discounted rates in the future, The New Paper reports.
Yusri was said to be inspired by a character from an unknown television show (probably not Triple Nine) who carried out a similar scheme, and went to buy items to make his policeman disguise look legit, including leather pass holders and a lanyard in May last year.
Happy with his get-up, he went to Geylang's red light district to try out his luck — managing to fool a Chinese prostitute into handing over her passport, work permit and her phone number.
Encouraged by his initial success, he went on to a unit at Lorong 22 which had about 10 prostitutes available. There he flashed his fake warrant card, tricking them to hand over their work permits for inspection. Yusri even had a bluetooth earpiece on, which he used to pretend speaking to a colleague.
Suspecting something was up, a friend of the unit's caretaker pretended to call the police, which scared Yusri into leaving immediately. He was later arrested by genuine policemen.
In court, two other theft charges were also considered in the sentencing — Yusri had stolen various camera equipment worth $31,771 while carrying out pest control operations in two homes at Swettenham Road between January and May last year. He sold his loot to camera shops to pay off his loanshark debts.
The criminal mastermind has since been sentenced to a jail term of eight months yesterday after pleading guilty to one count of impersonating a public servant and two charges of theft.
Photo: Blemished Paradise via Flickr
Yes, we're a country of bargain-hunters and haggling shoppers but 39-year-old Yusri Abdul Wahab probably takes the award for Top Cheapskate of the Month.
The former pest control officer pretended to be a policeman to obtain the contact details of sex workers in Geylang in the hope that they'd give him discounted rates in the future, The New Paper reports.
Yusri was said to be inspired by a character from an unknown television show (probably not Triple Nine) who carried out a similar scheme, and went to buy items to make his policeman disguise look legit, including leather pass holders and a lanyard in May last year.
Happy with his get-up, he went to Geylang's red light district to try out his luck — managing to fool a Chinese prostitute into handing over her passport, work permit and her phone number.
Encouraged by his initial success, he went on to a unit at Lorong 22 which had about 10 prostitutes available. There he flashed his fake warrant card, tricking them to hand over their work permits for inspection. Yusri even had a bluetooth earpiece on, which he used to pretend speaking to a colleague.
Suspecting something was up, a friend of the unit's caretaker pretended to call the police, which scared Yusri into leaving immediately. He was later arrested by genuine policemen.
In court, two other theft charges were also considered in the sentencing — Yusri had stolen various camera equipment worth $31,771 while carrying out pest control operations in two homes at Swettenham Road between January and May last year. He sold his loot to camera shops to pay off his loanshark debts.
The criminal mastermind has since been sentenced to a jail term of eight months yesterday after pleading guilty to one count of impersonating a public servant and two charges of theft.
Photo: Blemished Paradise via Flickr