SINGAPORE, July 8 — He took advantage of his friend, who was a well-known Islamic religious teacher, to cheat 85 people into believing they could go on a discounted Haj trip.

Mohd Ramlee Ab Samad tricked the victims into handing over their passports to process their visas, and got most of them to pay almost S$100,000 (RM316,160) for the purported trip.

The religious teacher, Fahrorazi Sohoi, also made advance payments of about S$40,000 on behalf of the victims.

Ramlee, now aged 62, was jailed for two years on Thursday (July 7) for his offences in 2018. The Singaporean pleaded guilty to 20 counts of cheating.

Another 65 similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

Fahrorazi faced a cheating charge in August 2018 over this scam, but was given a discharge not amounting an acquittal the following year.

This means that he can still be prosecuted and the charge can be revived, such as if new evidence emerges.

What happened

The court heard that Fahrorazi was bankrupt at the time of Ramlee’s offences. He had also done business with Ramlee previously.

In May 2018, Ramlee told his friend that places were available on a discounted trip for the Haj pilgrimage that year.

The number of Haj places available for Singaporeans and permanent residents is subject to the availability of quota allotted by Saudi Arabia.

Able-bodied Muslims are obliged to perform the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime if they have the means and the journey is safe.

Ramlee claimed that a representative from the Saudi authorities, who was purportedly in contact with staff members from the Istana, had told him about the discounted trip.

He told Fahrorazi that the Saudi authorities would pay for flights and accommodation for the trip, and participants needed only to pay S$1,550 for expenses such as airport tax and administrative fees.

Ramlee said that because Singapore’s Haj quota was full, the quota of participants would be obtained under the quotas from Brunei Darussalam and Batam, Indonesia.

Ramlee asked Fahrorazi to look for interested participants, specifically those who had not performed Haj before.

Fahrorazi would collect payment and passports from them in return for S$200 commission per participant.

Through this arrangement, between July and August 2018, 69 victims paid Ramlee a total of S$97,250 through Fahrorazi.

They either gave cash to Fahrorazi or his student, or made bank transfers to a DBS bank account controlled by Fahrorazi.

Ramlee had also told Fahrorazi that places on the trip and the fight there had to be reserved. Because of this, Fahrorazi made advance payments of about S$40,000 or more on behalf of the victims when they signed up.

No financial loss for victims

On Aug 13 in 2018, Ramlee left Singapore for Batam. Haj was set to take place between Aug 19 and 24.

Two days after he left, some of the victims began suspecting that they had fallen prey to a scam, after Fahrorazi told them the date of departure had been delayed from Aug 16 to Aug 17.

Fahrorazi’s student then made a police report. Ramlee was arrested in October that year when he returned from Batam.

During investigations, the authorities seized almost S$200,000 in cash from Fahrorazi’s safe and 85 Singapore passports from both him and Ramlee.

On Thursday, Deputy Public Prosecutors Tan Zhi Hao and Ryan Lim sought the sentence imposed. They noted that the individual victims had handed over sums of between S$1,550 and S$1,950.

They told the court that the victims ultimately did not lose any money because the cash seized during investigations could cover their losses. However, they argued that Ramlee should not get much credit for this because he has made no restitution himself.

Ramlee's use of Fahrorazi also “gave the scam a veil of legitimacy” and allowed him to distance himself from the fraud, the prosecutors said.

Ramlee, who did not have a lawyer, had asked for a gag order to protect his son and nephew who are apparently studying in an “international Islamic university in Malaysia”.

Deputy Principal District Judge Luke Tan rejected his request but allowed him to start serving his jail time on July 21. He had asked for a deferment to celebrate the upcoming Hari Raya Haji festivities on July 10.

For each cheating charge, Ramlee could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined. — TODAY