Jail for the man who had sex with a minor, then lied to the police that the young man raped her

SINGAPORE – A man facing charges including fraud was out on bail when he had sex with an underage girl and later lied to police about a teenager raping her.

Austin Toh En Zheng, 25, decided to frame the 17-year-old boy in retaliation after a dispute over matters not disclosed in court documents.

The documents also did not mention how the girl was related to Toh, who was jailed for three years, four months and six weeks on December 26.

He pleaded guilty to seven felony charges including fraud, sexually assaulting a 15-year-old and providing a false statement to authorities.

Toh began his killing spree around January 6, 2023.

Deputy prosecutors Norman Yew and Ashley Chin said in court documents that he received “investment offers” from unknown people on the Telegram messaging platform, promising him $1,000 if he allowed them to access his bank accounts.

He received a similar offer around July 23 of that year and was promised $500.

Between January and July 2023, Toh gave these unknown people control and access to his five bank accounts, which were later used to receive more than $423,000 in total.

Of that amount, more than $263,000 came from 17 victims of investment scams. Police later seized all five accounts, but by then, each account contained only between $1.58 and $8,000.19.

In an unrelated case, Toh also defrauded a 23-year-old female acquaintance out of more than $149,000.

She allowed him to use her mobile phone on January 19, 2023, to book a hotel room through the online platform Bookety.

The woman later decided to cancel the reservation because the payment was mistakenly made in US dollars and not Singapore dollars.

Toh then suggested that she transfer all her money from her bank account to another belonging to their 23-year-old male acquaintance for “safekeeping” so that the funds would not reach the Bookety operator.

The woman complied and transferred more than $149,000 to the man’s bank account. On 20 January 2023, Toh told her to withdraw the money.

The man did as he was told and handed the money to Toh, who gave him $30,000 of the amount. Toh also told her that he cheated on the woman.

The man later decided he wanted no part of the crime and alerted the police. Officers arrested Toh on January 26, 2023, and the woman got almost $131,000 of her money back.

Toh, who used more than $18,000 of his ill-gotten gains for gambling and drinking, was released on bail on January 28 that year.

Instead of staying out of trouble, he had unprotected sex with the 15-year-old five months later.

On June 28 of that year, he had an argument with the 17-year-old boy and decided to take revenge on him.

Toh encouraged the girl to make a false police report, claiming the boy had raped her.

A month later, Toh failed to appear in court and an arrest warrant was issued against him.

The girl filed the false police report against the boy on August 8, 2023 because she was afraid Toh would hurt her. The police then started investigation in the case.

Meanwhile, Toh defrauded two people of iPhones worth a total of nearly $3,000 in August and September 2023.

On September 18 that year, he surrendered to the police and was remanded in custody.

He was at Changi Prison Complex two months later when a police officer recorded a statement from him about the alleged rape. Toh lied to the officer claiming that the boy had raped the girl.

On March 22, 2024, the girl confessed to the police about her lies. Toh eventually revealed the truth when the officers confronted him.

• Shaffiq Alkhatib is The Straits Times court correspondent, covering mainly criminal cases heard in state courts.

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