Take Now, Pay Later

Part I

Nothing in the early years of young Carlton suggested that he would live a life of crime. Coming from a comfortable, middle-class family, Carlton never tasted poverty, let alone hunger. Still he was not always happy as his parents could never satisfy all his wants which even at a young age, were many.

He had an eye for beautiful things. When he saw his classmates with nice water tumblers, pencil boxes, pens and note-books, he pestered his parents to buy them. He would not take “no” for an answer and more often than not, his parents would give in.

Of course things did not always go his way. There were times when his parents stood their ground. That would upset young Carlton who would spend the day thinking how he could get around the problem. One day, he heard the shopkeeper in his school telling a student that he could have the items “on credit”. “You can take them now and pay me tomorrow,” added the man. “Wow! Take now, pay later. What a wonderful word ‘credit’ is,” thought Carlton.

That day, he made a list of the things he wanted on credit. Over the next few days, he took freely from the shop – pencil case, playing cards, snakes and ladders game etc. As the list of things that he took grew longer and longer, the size of his bills got bigger. He used his pocket money to pay off some of his debts to the shop but it was never enough. He resorted to borrowing from his classmates but there was always the question of how he was going to repay them after that. He ended up avoiding both shopkeeper and classmates because he could not pay either. He skipped classes and stopped answering calls at home. Sometimes he would steal from his parents to pay his debts. Carlton Goh was a very desperate 10-year-old.

His parents caught him stealing a few times and they caned him quite severely. After the lashes, they would bring him to one corner and explain to him why he was punished. He could still remember the things they said to him – “It is wrong to steal”, “it is shameful to be a thief”, “study hard for a good future,” etc. Unfortunately, their advice entered one ear and exited through the other. Nothing interested Carlton other than how to avoid getting caught the next time.

When Carlton’s parents kept their wallets in a locked drawer, his supply of cash dried up and this worsened his financial woes. His day of reckoning came when his debtors finally complained to the principal who then summoned his parents. They listened in acute embarrassment as the shopkeeper and his classmates spoke about his pile of debts.

Though shocked and disappointed, they quickly paid up. After the usual cane-cum-lecture, they decided to hold a meeting with his grandparents to get to the bottom of the problem. After a lengthy discussion, they concluded that the boy had behaved in this manner because he had stepped on something “unclean”. He was duly sent to a temple to be cleansed of evil spirits.

Despite his incorrigible ways, Carlton did well in school. For his good work, Carlton’s parents fulfilled his every wish – they bought him show dogs, remote control cars and expensive bicycles. When Carlton was in secondary one, he scored an average 95% for all subjects. He was the school’s top student that year. But success did not stop him from living on credit. If anything, he took advantage of his popularity to borrow even more from his classmates. And when he could not repay his friends, he simply avoided them or stopped taking their calls.

At around this time, Carlton added a new and expensive hobby to his existing ones – girl-chasing. The fact that his father’s business failed in the 1985 downturn made no impression on him. He only knew that he needed money to splash on the girls. He was 16 and found skirt-chasing a fascinating pastime. Then he came up with what he thought was an ingenious way of making money. Somehow, he managed to rustle the $500 needed to open a current account with POSB. Whenever he was low on cash, he would simply write out a cheque – even though he knew that he had no funds to honour it. At 18, he was writing two to three bad cheques a day.

But the scam came at a high price. After months of writing dud cheques, every police officer was on his tail. He decided to leave home to avoid arrest. But he was far from fearful. In fact, he became even more brazen. One day, he walked into a second-hand car shop and drove away a gleaming BMW 320IA, after issuing a cheque for the downpayment, insurance and transfer fees. With cheque-book in hand, he wielded the pen like a magical wand. Just a quick scrawl and what he wanted was his.

His days of wine and roses ended when someone tipped the police off on his whereabouts. He was arrested but not before stashing away a sizeable sum of money, a wardrobe of designer clothes, a gold Rolex watch and a limited edition of Tag Heuer.

After two years in Reformative Training, he was released and got a job as a sales executive with a global electronic company. Soon after, with the cash he had hidden away, he bought a brand new Toyota MR2 and fitted it with a body-kit of Kaminari (the Japanese Ferrari) accessories.

One day while topping up his tank at a petrol kiosk, he befriended a man who claimed to be some big shot in the Toyota MR2 Club in Singapore. The man complimented Carlton’s car and invited him to join his club. It was a godsend to rub shoulders with the rich and famous! The club’s outings were exclusive and memorable affairs but they also burnt a big hole in his pocket. He was way out of his depth trying to keep up with the Joneses who were raking in $150,000 a year..

Part II

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