Written by Team Farallon
By Vanessa Paige Chelvan
SINGAPORE: Four Turkish nationals were on Wednesday (Oct 7) sentenced to between 12 weeks’ and six months’ jail for cheating at play at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) Casino.
They pleaded guilty to three charges each of cheating at play.
The quartet arrived in Singapore on Aug 21 and checked into a hotel in Jalan Besar. Suleyman Arik, 31, Mehmet Mersin, 52, Firat Teymur, 25, and Asiye Cakmak, 24, had travelled to Singapore intending to cheat at the casino.
The plan, hatched by Arik and Mersin, was to give Cakmak some money to gamble in the casino. She would also distract the dealer at the game table.
The men then instructed Teymur to stand nearby and to move directly behind them when signaled. This was so Teymur would block the view of other patrons, so they would not see the men exchange cards under the table.
The quartet were discovered by the casino’s surveillance team during a routine check of CCTV cameras. The recording captured Cakmak having a conversation with the dealer, who was unaware that Arik and Mersin were swapping cards under the table.
Arik netted a total of S$6,075 in about half an hour.
Another S$3,900 in cash and S$350 worth of chips were seized from Arik and Mersin upon their arrest.
In court on Wednesday, Mersin’s lawyer Nicolas Tang said his client was “genuinely remorseful” and cooperated fully with investigations. He added that Mersin is “not part of a criminal syndicate” and the amount cheated was relatively low.
Mersin’s three accomplices, who were unrepresented, all told the court that they were remorseful and very sorry for what they had done.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Francis Zhang sought a jail term of 6 months each for Arik and Mersin and 3 months each for Teymur and Cakmak. He noted that the latter two did not come up with the plan or carry out the actual card swapping.
For each charge of cheating at play, the Turkish nationals could have been jailed up to 7 years and fined up to S$150,000.
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160 Robinson Road
#22-07 SBF Center
Singapore 068914
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