A 22-year-old man has been sentenced to 20 months and four weeks in jail after stealing his grandmother’s life savings of $280,000 over the course of a year, and lying to both her and the police to cover up his actions.
Adam Ilhan Mohamad Idhamsahbani was entrusted with helping his 77-year-old grandmother with online banking as she suffered from Parkinson’s disease, had memory difficulties, and was not proficient in English. She relied on him for assistance in accessing her five bank accounts to pay bills, make purchases, and donate to charity.
But instead of helping her, Adam secretly siphoned every dollar from her accounts between January and December 2023. He spent the money on personal items, including a laptop, desktop computer, printer, and in-game purchases related to his gaming addiction.
His grandmother first noticed something was wrong in August 2023, when she saw that some of her money was missing. By December, all of her accounts had been emptied.
When she asked Adam for help, he told her a lie — that her accounts had been hacked and she had fallen victim to scammers. He even forged two fake letters supposedly from the police to convince her.
The elderly woman eventually made a police report. When Adam was interviewed by the police at Ang Mo Kio Division on January 17, 2024, he repeated the same lies. He claimed he had contacted the banks and received a call from the Anti-Scam Command in October. He said police officers had met him in person and given him two letters confirming that the money had been scammed.
His lies began to unravel when officers visited him the next day to follow up. During that visit, Adam confessed to fabricating the entire story. He admitted that he was tempted to commit the crime after seeing how much money his grandmother had in her accounts.
He was charged with one count of criminal breach of trust and one count of providing false information to a public servant. The maximum sentence for criminal breach of trust is 20 years’ jail and a fine. Providing false information can carry a penalty of up to two years in jail, a fine, or both.
In court, Deputy Public Prosecutor Lim Li Ting highlighted Adam’s lack of remorse, saying he had not taken full responsibility for his actions. In fact, his mitigation plea tried to shift some blame to his grandmother for trusting him, which the prosecution said reflected a “clear lack of remorse.”
Adam has since returned $100,000 to his grandmother, but $180,000 remains unrecovered.
During sentencing, District Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan rejected the defence’s request for a probation suitability report, stating that Adam’s actions were not a moment of folly, but instead premeditated and deliberate. “This is a very serious offence,” said the judge. “It was planned, deliberate.”
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