NRI Patel Dhavalkumar Chandubhai jailed in Singapore.
Scammer tried to escape country with roommate passport.

Los Angeles, June 16, 2023
NRIpress.club/Ramesh/ A.Gary Singh

A 24-year-old NRI Patel Dhavalkumar Chandubhai who was out on bail for swindling numerous students in a rental scam has been sentenced to jail for attempting to escape Singapore. The young man attempted to use his roommate’s passport to leave the country, thereby adding a serious charge of identity fraud to his list of offences.

Patel was sentenced to 14 months and 14 weeks’ jail on Thursday after pleading guilty to five charges, including one under the Passports Act. The other charges were related to the rental scam.

Patel entered into an agreement with four rental scam victims, who had come to Singapore to study, to each rent a room in the unit he was residing in. Court documents did not state how many rooms there were in the unit or what kind of unit it was.

In May 2022, Patel demanded a rental sum of $500 from each victim, and asked for an additional $200 from one of the victims for groceries to be shared among the tenants of the unit.

After receiving the monies, however, Patel left the unit on the pretext that he was travelling to Malaysia for a short trip and became uncontactable.

The landlord eventually informed the victims that Patel had not paid him their monthly rent and that he had been giving excuses to delay the payment. Subsequently, the landlord demanded that they leave the unit.

The victims lodged police reports against Patel. He was arrested on May 29 at Changi Airport while attempting to leave Singapore for India.