Jail for woman who ‘sold’ kittens on Facebook and cheated buyers of S$3,000

SINGAPORE — A woman, who cheated several victims of money after she promised to give them kittens or a room to rent, was jailed for three months and five weeks on Monday (June 21).

Norsusilawani Nani, 29, pleaded guilty to five counts of cheating. Another eight similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

She has since made restitution totalling S$2,100 to some of her victims.

Court documents showed that over about two months in 2018, nine strangers were duped into handing over a total of S$3,050 for kittens after they responded to Facebook advertisements by Norsusilawani, who went by the username “MsLittle Candy”. 

She falsely advertised that she had kittens for sale in order to earn extra income as she was unemployed at the time. 

The nine victims registered their orders and she asked them to transfer deposit payments ranging from S$150 to S$700 to her POSB bank account.

One transferred S$450 to her on June 20, 2018 for a single feline, while another paid S$700 for two kittens.

She then told them that they would get their cats after they had been dewormed and vaccinated. However, she coud not be contacted after some time.

The victims made police reports after realising that they had been cheated.

Separately, in July 2018, Norsusilawani wanted to rent a flat from an acquaintance. 

To defray the cost, she decided to look for a co-tenant and advertised a room on Facebook under the username “Wanny Mok”.

A 31-year-old India national came across the advertisement and Norsusilawani lied to him that she was helping her friend to look for tenants. 

She gave him her own phone number and lied that it was her friend’s. She then posed as her friend and told him that he needed to pay S$350 to secure the room and sign the tenancy agreement.

She also agreed to his request to view the property.

On July 27, 2018, he transferred S$350 to her. She then repeatedly stalled for time and could not be reached after he told her that he wanted his money back.

Court documents showed that Norsusilawani also misappropriated S$26,000 from her grandmother’s bank account from August 2017 to January 2018 and took S$8,000 in cash from her drawer.

She was arrested in January last year at the Ang Mo Kio Police Division headquarters.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Bjorn Tan sought at least 18 weeks’ jail while Norsusilawani's lawyer, Mr Ng Shi Yang from the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme, asked for a week less.

Mr Ng said that after her offences, she was diagnosed in the Institute of Mental Health with major depressive disorder and has been taking medication for it.

“The period of time in which she committed the offences was objectively a very dark time for her. She recognises the full gravity of her offences,” the lawyer added.

In sentencing, District Judge Janet Wang took into consideration factors such as using online personas to hide her identity.

“I hope you will learn to live your life in a more constructive way,” she told Norsusilawani, who replied that she would.

For each cheating charge, she could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined.