A MALAYSIAN man has been packed off to jail for nine months in a well-planned S$1.13 million lottery scam involving 80 victims.

Ng Seh Seng, 34, who faced 145 charges, pleaded guilty in a district court on Thursday to 10 counts of disposing of stolen money last year.

The court heard that he had opened a POSB account in Singapore on the instructions of his two accomplices - known only as Ah Fook and Ah Chan - to receive money from the victims.

The victims who paid money into the account had received flyers in their mail boxes with details of how various people had struck first prize in a lottery after engaging the services of a 'Chinese Master'.

Ah Fook's contact number was printed on each flyer.

Enticed by the promises of instant wealth and easy riches, the victims contacted Ah Fook who would tell them he was working with a 'Master'.

He would ask the victims to transfer a stated sum into the POSB account on the pretext of using the funds to buy joss sticks and pay monks for prayers.

Once this was done, Ah Fook would give him a random 4D number.

Subsequently, Ah Fook would contact the victims again to refer them to a greater 'Master' from Thailand called Ah Chan after claiming that the his 'Master's' powers were insufficient to reverse their ill fortune.

Ah Chan would repeat the same ploy and dupe the victims into parting with large sums of money deposited in the POSB account.

Ng would then be asked to withdraw the stolen money from his account and hand it over to Ah Fook in Johor Baru on a regular basis.

The spate of cheating only came to light when two of the victims became suspicious and lodged police reports.

None of the money was recovered.

The remaining 135 charges were taken into consideration.

Ng, who is married and fell into hard times after losing his electrician job, earned between RM1,000 (S$430) and RM3,000 a month from the scam, said his lawyer Richard Lim.

He could have been jailed for up to three years and/or fined on each charge.