SHE knows she's one of the most unloved Singaporean beauty queens.

Especially now that her dirty little secret has tumbled out - the one she had hoped no one would learn about.

Miss Singapore World 2009 Ris Low Yi Min was sentenced in May to 24 months of supervised probation after being convicted of credit card fraud.

Sounding almost resigned, Ris said yesterday that she was waiting for the pageant organisers to inform her whether she will still be allowed to represent Singapore in the Miss World pageant in South Africa in December.

'I'm sad and disappointed,' she told The New Paper over the phone.

'I don't know who leaked this information about me. Now I may have to give up my dream (of participating in an international pageant).'

Lawyer Adrian Wee told The New Paper that it was up to Ris' probation officer to decide whether to allow her to travel to South Africa.

'Such decisions are usually determined on a case-by-case basis,' he said.

But even if Ris is allowed to leave Singapore, she may still be barred from taking part in the Miss World pageant.

The Miss World website states that pageant contestants must not have been charged or convicted in any court of law in any country.

Ris said she had used the credit cards fraudulently in 'a moment of folly'.

She said: 'When you are young and do something, you don't really think of the consequences.

'At the time, I didn't even think I would be joining a beauty pageant or that I would become a beauty queen.'

Ris said the pageant organisers were initially unaware of her offences.

'I told them about it only after I had won. I didn't know it was part of the contract,' she said.

She added that the organisers were 'shocked and angry' when they heard about it. The New Paper's repeated phone calls and e-mails to the pageant organisers, ERM World Marketing Pte Ltd, went unanswered yesterday.

Ris said: 'I regret what I did. I disappointed my parents, because I did it (credit card fraud) even though I wasn't in any need of money.'

At 19 and with a future still ahead of her, she is optimistic of putting this setback behind her.

'My friends have been very supportive through this period. I could really see their care and concern for me. My parents have also stood by me,' she said.

The first-time offender had faced five charges of misappropriation, cheating using illegally obtained credit cards and impersonating their users' identities.

Another 60 charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

She had obtained the credit cards while she was working at a well-known medical group here.

According to court documents, Ris spent more than $2,400 on at least three credit cards on at least four separate occasions in April and May last year.

Among the items she bought were a $698 Samsung handphone and two gold anklets worth $980 in all.

She also visited Equinox, an upscale restaurant at Swissotel the Stamford, twice within the same week - spending almost $400 on food and drinks each time.

The New Paper understands that her former employer filed a police report in April last year after she was caught using credit cards belonging to patients who visited the clinic where she worked.

A spokesman for the medical group confirmed that she joined the group in December 2007 and left in May last year.

She also confirmed there was a civil case involving Ris, but declined to comment on it.

When The New Paper learnt of Ris' legal troubles about a month ago and confronted her, she denied it.

Then My Paper broke the story yesterday. Now, it looks like few are prepared to forgive and forget.

This article was first published in The New Paper.