Take Now, Pay Later

Part II

To sustain his opulent lifestyle, he returned to living on credit. He would purchase items on credit to feed his urge to soup up his car, knowing full well that he did not have the money to pay the installments. In desperation, he came up with sob stories to milk his friends of large sums. With these loans, he managed to settle his debts and even had enough to buy a second-hand BMW 316IA with an 80% loan on a monthly installment of $2,150. He started doing up his BMW but this time the bills were even heftier because he was driving a BMW instead of a Toyota.

He later resigned from the electronic company and joined a freight forwarding firm as a sales executive because he had been told that there were lots of money in this business. He soon got his contacts to send their cargoes to his warehouse which secured his company big bucks and earned him enough commission to cover his monthly car installment as well as repay some of his earlier loans.

Things were looking up. With his income, he became the VIP guest of exclusive clubs and held special (gold, platinum, and titanium) memberships worth thousands of dollars. He rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous who shared his passion for women and cars. Inside the club, he matched them dollar for dollar, blowing thousands on bottles of Louis XIII just to impress them. He was generous with tips and was popular wherever he went. Word spread quickly and soon he was the guy of every girl’s dreams. He was flooded by calls from girls he did not even know.

His next venture was a pro-shop selling accessories and performance parts for luxury cars. He set up shop with two partners but did not quit his freight forwarding job because the money was still good. He was driving a BMW 325IA Cabriolet by day and a Porsche Carrera 4 by night. Later, he upgraded to a Mercedes 300SL 24v and a Ferrari 348 GTB. He also bought himself a studio apartment in Spanish Village condominium.

His pro-shop business was booming but the good times did not last. Competition was very keen. Being a small company, they had to buy many of their accessories from local distributors. The fact that every shop in town was fighting for the same accessories led to the distributors upping their prices. His partners decided to increase the number of individual shares in the company to raise the money to import the parts directly from the principal supplier. It was easy for them since they had rich fathers. But for Carlton, his only financial resource was the loansharks of Geylang.

Carlton felt frustrated and depressed. Already most of his money had gone to paying off the interest for his illicit loans. How could he afford to borrow again. At this time, he cast his mind on Khamis, one of the most wanted white collar criminals in Singapore history who ran away with his money. He imagined him sitting pretty in one of his mega-yachts and sipping the finest wine. He could be like that too. A plan was hatched. He started siphoning money from his company.

As for the loansharks, he decided it was time to pay them back in their own coin. He told them that he was expecting a big shipment of accessories that would require big money to buy. He asked for a mammoth sum which ought to have set alarm bells ringing. But the ‘sharks’, blinded by their greed, agreed to lend him the money.

Shortly after Carlton pocketed the money, he took the night flight out of Singapore. His mobile phone was apparently still within receiving range when he heard the voice of his pro-shop partner, Michael. Trembling with rage, he wanted to know where Carlton was. When Carlton lied that he was at Lei Garden, his favourite restaurant, Michael barked: “You still have the appetite to eat? Do you know that the police and gangsters are searching everywhere for you?” In answer, Carlton laughed his cynical laugh. And then the line went dead.

By the time Carlton transited in Korea, he knew both police and debtors would be at his home. He was worried about how his parents would take the news of his absconding. He wanted to call them. But he changed his mind as soon as he entered the phone booth. His calls might be traced. He could not afford to give himself away. He had gone too far to feel remorseful now.

He hid away in a state of 130,000 people, thousands of kilometres from Singapore. He thought he would feel safe but instead he felt mentally drained and tense. He was a fugitive on the run in a foreign land and although he could buy anything he wanted, he could not buy the peace of mind he craved. Whenever he was in the public, he felt watched and this made him paranoid.

He also could not take up a job for fear that he would be detected. Cooped up in the house like an animal, he felt as if he was serving time in a gilded cage. Loneliness made him pack his house with new friends but it could not disguise the emotional void within him. And after they left, he felt lonely and despondent again.

Although he enjoyed himself at times – hanging out at the beaches and partying at night – he never got used to the solitude. After much agonizing, he decided to pack it in. On 1 June 1995, he returned to Singapore. He spent the day attending to some personal matters before he walked into the Central Police Station at 10.30pm and gave himself up. Strange as it might seem, he felt a tremendous sense of relief after his surrender.

Looking back, Carlton regretted his “take now, pay later” philosophy. He wanted all things beautiful and he wanted them instantly. To achieve that, there was only one thing he could do – beg, borrow or steal. He did all three and for a while, it enabled him to live a life of opulence. But he could not sustain it for long because robbing Peter to pay Paul was never the way to go. That seems clear enough now. Sadly for him, it wasn’t back then.

Part I

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