Housewife with cancer and brain tumour wants her money back after firm shuts down
SHE said she was promised returns of more than 500 per cent if she invested $31,000 in a plot of land in the UK.
Thinking she had a chance to make some money, the Singapore woman put down a deposit and signed a contract.
The woman, who is a cancer patient, said she had hoped to repay her husband’s kindness and pay him back the savings he had poured into her treatment.
But the $3,100 deposit she put down has now allegedly disappeared, along with the real estate company UK Prime Land that once operated from an office in Parkway Parade.
The couple are also stuck with $2,000 in legal costs they incurred while trying to pull out of the deal.
It is not known how many other investors also put money into the scheme. What is clear is that many are likely to suffer a total loss.
A companies search revealed that UK Prime Land’s sole shareholder is a Vietnamese national with no Singapore address listed.
Its registered office at Albert Street is nothing but a service that offers premises and secretarial support for hire.
Police reports
When contacted by The New Paper on Sunday, police spokesman Stanley Norbert said police have received reports against the company and are looking into the matter.
The couple requested not to be named, as most of their family members do not know about the case.
But they hope their story will alert other Singaporeans.
Said Mrs Tham (not her real name), 34, a housewife: ‘I don’t know why I believed them. I’ve never gone for such things before.
‘That day, I thought if I really get $200,000, I can do a lot of things… considering, you know, my condition, my sickness.’
Mrs Tham is suffering from stage four breast cancer, a brain tumour and epilepsy.
She had hoped to gain back more than $200,000 in one year, as promised by the company.
Mrs Tham had to quit her sales job last year when her cancer got worse.
The couple now depend on her husband’s $3,000 monthly salary.
She said: ‘Almost every month, I have to take medicine and see doctors. If I have my own money, I can pay my husband back.’
Mrs Tham said she received a call in October from UK Prime Land saying she had won a 40 sq m plot of land in Dundee, UK, as part of a lucky draw, and that she had to go to its office to claim the prize.
She said: ‘I didn’t take part in any lucky draw, so I was suspicious. But she said it’s free, just go down and get the (land title deed), no need to pay anything.’
So she went to the company’s office at Parkway Parade a week later.
It was a professional-looking outfit, with wooden floors, the company’s logo stamped on all their stationery, and more than 10 staff in office wear.
Mrs Tham said she was ushered into a room, where a man congratulated her and showed her photos of the plot of land she had ‘won’.
He then allegedly started to persuade her to invest $31,000 in a second plot of UK land.
Mrs Tham claimed that when she said she wasn’t interested, he kept repeating his sales pitch, and got a female supervisor to join in.
Said Mrs Tham: ‘The lady kept saying, if you invest just $31,000, after one year, you can get back more than $200,000.’
Mrs Tham claimed she was shown several contracts signed by others and was told that the available land was going fast.
She was also allegedly told she could just put down a 10 per cent deposit of $3,100, and if her relatives didn’t approve of the investment, she would get a refund.
Mrs Tham claimed she was subjected to the high-pressure sales tactics for about two hours. Worn down, she finally agreed to pay the deposit and sign the contract.
It included the line that the deposit is ‘refundable in case of hers disapproval of next of kin’ (sic).
Mrs Tham admitted she didn’t read the contract before signing.
She said: ‘The words are so small, so many, who has the patience to read everything.’
When she got home and showed the contract to her husband, he felt something was wrong.
Said Mr Tham, 35, a service engineer: ‘The sum and the investment period are all not there in the contract.’
There was no mention of the $200,000 returns, or even a guarantee on the $31,000 principal.
He got Mrs Tham to seek a refund of the deposit from UK Prime Land office the next day but the company allegedly refused.
Worried that his wife may be liable to pay the rest of the $31,000, Mr Tham sought a lawyer’s help to ask for a refund, and to declare the contract null and void.
Again, the company allegedly refused, so the couple filed a suit against them.
The company did not turn up in court on the hearing date, and Mr and Mrs Tham got a judgement against them in their absence for the $3,100, plus costs.
When the company still did not pay, Mr Tham went to its Parkway Parade office early this month. That’s when he realised the office was empty.
Nearby tenants told The New Paper on Sunday that the office has been closed for about a month.
All calls to the land lines went unanswered, and a handphone number given to Mrs Tham is no longer in service.
The serviced office operator at Albert Street claimed he knows nothing about the daily workings of the company.
He said his main role was to help do the paperwork when the company was set up in the middle of last year.
He claimed he did not know anything was amiss until last month, when the police came to the door asking him questions.
He said he has also since filed a police report against UK Prime Land.
Source : New Paper - 21 Dec 2008
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