SINGAPORE: In a bid to pay off his brother’s debts to loan sharks, a sales representative working for a poultry wholesaler began gambling on football matches and slot machines.
However, this led to more losses and got him addicted to gambling. When his brother died, the illegal moneylenders began harassing him instead, giving him daily calls and visiting his home.
Tan Choon Long, 46, embezzled S$193,062 of sales proceeds handed to him by customers and stopped turning up to work.
He was sentenced to two years’ jail on Monday (Feb 13) for one count of criminal breach of trust by misappropriation.
The court heard that Tan worked as a sales representative at Lee Say Poultry Industrial, a company supplying poultry products.
As part of his job, he took orders and collected payments from customers. This was by cash, cheque or bank transfer to the company’s bank account.
According to Tan’s lawyer, Populus Law’s John Koh, Tan’s brother died in 2021 and left behind an “enormous” debt.
As his brother had put down Tan’s home address and personal details when signing up for the loan, the loan sharks began harassing Tan when they could not get hold of his brother.
The illegal moneylenders called Tan daily on both his personal and company phone lines and visited his house.
Tan began gambling to try to make money so he could pay off his brother’s debts. However, he lost money instead and became addicted to gambling.
On May 19, 2022, he did not show up to work. His supervisor tried contacting him to no avail, so he visited Tan’s home.
Tan’s daughter told Tan’s supervisor that her father had not come home since the day before.
The supervisor then checked the company accounts and discovered a shortfall of money. He also checked with some customers, who said they had received receipts for payments, but the payments were not logged on the company’s side.
Tan had been instructing customers to make payments via bank transfer to his own bank account instead of the company’s. He did so to at least 11 customers between February 2022 and May 2022.
He initially left Singapore for Vietnam as he feared the discovery of his offences, but later returned in June 2022 and was arrested.
His lawyer asked for 20 to 22 months’ jail for Tan, saying that he is deeply remorseful and acted out of character.
He now works as a private-hire driver with Gojek, earning about S$1,600 to S$1,800 a month. He is the main breadwinner of his family, supporting his 20-year-old daughter’s studies, and is in the midst of filing for bankruptcy as he cannot repay his debts.
The lawyer said the incident has served as a wake-up call for Tan, who has managed to recover from his gambling addiction and is determined not to reoffend.
The penalties for criminal breach of trust by employees are a jail term of up to 15 years and a fine.