A BUSINESSWOMAN was jailed for 45 months on Tuesday for cheating two women of a total of $649,200.

Chua Siew Mui, 44, who pleaded guilty, deceived Ms Diana Chong Mei Ling, 55, into believing that she could invest in her aromatheraphy business here and overseas and induced her to hand over $142,700 between December 2003 and December 2006.

Her second victim, Ms Ong Bee Ding, 42, was duped into handing over $506,500 between October 2005 and December 2006.

Two other victims were cheated of $56,904 but the two charges were taken into consideration.

A district court heard that she met the women while selling her essential and aromatheraphy oils on pushcarts at shopping centres.

She convinced them into investing in her business after claiming she had her own laboratory at Ubi.

To prevent suspicion, she had promptly paid investments returns amounting to $28,600 and $99,000 to Ms Chong and Ms Ong respectively.

After her victims had demanded repayment from her in December 2006, she surrendered herself to the Commercial Affairs Department in January last year, on the advice of her lawyer, Mr Choo Si Sen.

Mr Choo told the court that his client had since returned $135,100 out of the $706,104 cheated.

Chua could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined on each cheating offence.