Man Exploits Loophole In Food Delivery App's System To Order RM567,548 Worth Of Free Meals
A real-life 'Catch Me If You Can', but without Leonardo DiCaprio.
By Kay Ng — 20 Jan 2023, 04:47 PM
A 25-year-old has been sentenced to 31 months in jail after he exploited a loophole in a food delivery platform's system, allowing him to order over RM567,548 worth of food without paying a single cent
According to TODAY Online, the accused, Ronny Lee Jia Jie, pled guilty to two charges of cheating and one charge of forgery yesterday, 19 January.
The crime took place in 2020, when Lee was an administrative staff member at his father's ship repairing company, Hestia Marine.
Without his father's knowledge, he registered a corporate account in Hestia Marine's name with a food delivery platform by listing himself as the representative of the company.
Between 20 January and April 5 2020, Lee ordered food amounting to a total of RM60,819. When the company pressed for payments, he would simply state that the payment cheques were not ready.
After the corporate account was blocked in July 2020, Lee created another corporate account in the name of Mediacorp
Using this account, Lee ordered RM506,124 worth of food, surgical masks, and other items between 14 August and 3 November 2020.
The food was for Lee's own consumption, whereas he resold the masks on e-commerce platforms for his own profit during the height of the pandemic.
After his ruse was discovered, he was called upon to attend court on 5 December 2020. However, Lee managed to weasel his way out of attending his court hearings on three different occasions by forging letters from Singapore Media Academy where he was a student.
He sent the State Courts letters stating he had examinations to sit for, and consequently would be unable to attend his hearings.
The jig was up for Lee when court officers eventually verified with Singapore Media Academy that the letters were forged.
