Man took advantage of mum’s dementia to withdraw S$42,000 from his parents’ joint account, gets jail

SINGAPORE: After his father rejected his requests for money, a jobless gambler began accompanying his mother grocery shopping, taking advantage of her dementia to get her to withdraw a total of about S$42,000 (US$31,660).
The money, which was in his parents’ joint account, was meant for the elderly woman’s medical bills for her condition.
Chow Zhida Gary, 37, was sentenced to 13 months’ jail on Tuesday (Aug 6) for a crime the prosecutor called “cruel”.
The Singaporean pleaded guilty to three charges of theft.
Another three charges were taken into consideration, including pushing his elderly father and threatening a police officer, saying in Mandarin: “You want to play big, come, I have a rotten or bad life, you want to play with me come, I have two children.”
The court heard that Chow’s parents were both retirees in their 80s.
They shared a joint bank account, from which either could withdraw cash.
At the time of the offences, Chow was unemployed and heavily in debt from gambling.
He often asked his father for money but was always rebuffed.
Knowing that his mother suffered from dementia, Chow frequently accompanied her to buy groceries.
On at least eight occasions between May 2020 and June 2020, he went with his mother to withdraw cash.
He knew that she was not mentally capable of understanding why she was helping him to get the cash, and he did not tell his father about it.
Each time, he took care to instruct his mother to withdraw small amounts, to prevent triggering an alert being sent to his father about large withdrawals.
In total, S$38,350 was withdrawn from his parents’ bank account. Chow kept a portion in cash and deposited the remainder into his own account.
In late July 2020, Chow’s father realised that there was only about S$49 left, even though he remembered there being more than S$36,000 inside.
He made a police report.
Weeks later, Chow accompanied his mother again to a mall where he asked her to withdraw another S$4,000.
Court documents did not indicate how the account came to be topped up with cash.
In January 2021, Chow’s father was informed by his bank that the joint account did not have the minimum amount required to keep the account open.
The elderly man lodged another police report as he needed the money to fund his wife’s medical treatment.
On top of stealing from his own parents, Chow also stole jewellery worth about S$5,000 from his 76-year-old aunt, pawning them off.
When he was questioned by the police, Chow lied and claimed that his mother had asked for his help to withdraw money to give to other family members or friends.
He admitted to taking advantage of his mother’s mental illness to get money for himself only when confronted by the many deposits he had made into his own account.
To date, he has made no restitution to his parents or aunt.
The prosecutor sought 16 months’ jail, noting that the value of the stolen items or cash across all charges was about S$55,000.
He said what sets this case apart from others was the “serious abuse of trust” against Chow’s mother, who was a vulnerable victim.
He said the elderly woman needed the money for her medical treatment, but Chow stole it, exploiting her dementia to do so until there was “literally nothing left to steal”.
“This cruelty towards such a trusting and vulnerable victim is what distinguishes this case and justifies such a stiff sentence,” said the prosecutor.
He said there was nothing mitigating on Chow’s part except the guilty plea – with no restitution and no cooperation with the police.
Chow, who was unrepresented, said nothing in mitigation. He asked only to defer his sentence to Aug 12, citing his son’s birthday.
He was granted this request.