SINGAPORE: Over five weeks, a manager with regard to Parkway Shenton misappropriated more than S$634, 1000 from payments collected from travellers at Woodlands Checkpoint intended for COVID-19 tests.
Jacob Quek Kuan Liat, 41, was sentenced in order to three-and-a-half years’ prison on Friday (Jul 29) after pleading guilty to an amalgamated charge of felony breach of believe in by an employee.
The offences happened more than half a year right after Quek started operating as a checkpoint manager for the healthcare provider within June 2020.
One of his obligations was to collect the payments from travellers arriving from Malaysia for COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction checks.
Each PCR test cost S$160. The cash proceeds from the night shift and time shift would be collated and handed over pertaining to banking into Parkway Shenton’s account.
Between Jan twenty-eight, 2021 and Jun 16, 2021, Quek misappropriated the proceeds to sustain his gambling addiction, utilizing it to place football bets.
He would after that return money to Parkway Shenton if he won. He or she made more than S$180, 000 in non-reflex restitution this way.
The offences were discovered when Quek turned himself within at a neighbourhood police centre on Jun 22, 2021.
The prosecutor asked for 42 to 45 months’ jail, featuring the substantial amount of cash that Quek misappropriated.
The assess said it was aggravating that Quek stole the money to feed his gambling addiction.
But he or she also noted that Quek had surrendered himself to the law enforcement, paid back about thirty per cent of the taken money, and signed an agreement to repay the others after his release.
The abuse for criminal breach of trust as an employee is up to 15 years’ jail plus a fine.