SINGAPORE, July 23 — A car dealer tricked his customer into transferring ownership of a luxury car to the dealership with the promise of renewing its Certificate of Entitlement (COE) at a favourable rate. The dealer then secretly used the vehicle as security to get a loan. About a year later, in a separate swindle, the dealer, Tor Kar Wai, misappropriated the proceeds of selling another client’s car.
He used the funds to pay off some loans and to gamble. Today, the 53-year-old Singaporean was sentenced to three years' jail after pleading guilty to one count each of cheating and criminal breach of trust. Three further charges of criminal breach of trust, also involving clients at the car dealership, were taken into consideration during the sentencing.
What happened The court heard that Tor was the managing director and car dealer at Atlantic Automobile. Sometime in January 2021, a client approached him to renew the COE of his wife’s car, a Porsche Panamera, worth about S$111,000 (RM385,417). The wife had earlier bought the Porsche from Tor.
Tor told the victim that he would renew the car’s COE at a good rate if the ownership of the vehicle was first transferred to Atlantic Automobile, and that he would transfer it back after the certificate was renewed. The victim's wife could still drive the car in the meantime, Tor told them. The victim had the ownership transferred on Jan 26.
The same day Tor used it as security to secure a S$100,000 loan to the company from Dickson.