18 months jail for HR associate director who treated company as her ‘personal piggy bank’ taking S$196K through false claims

SINGAPORE: A woman who worked in the Human Resources department of a local interior design company was given a jail sentence of 18 months and six weeks earlier this month after pleading guilty to two counts of cheating and one charge of criminal breach of trust. An additional 18 charges were also taken into consideration for her sentencing.

The court heard that 53-year-old Tan Lee Nah began handing in false claims for expenses in May 2017, just two months after she started working for a company called D’Perception Singapore.

Tan had been responsible for the firm’s payroll system and embezzled S$195,786 for two-and-a-half years until a colleague spotted her claims in November 2019. The company fired her the following month.

She claimed to have used the money for the medical bills of her parents, as well as for the school fees of her child. Tan has been unable to pay the company back as she does not have the money to do so.

The judge in Tan’s case said that she treated the funds of D’Perception Singapore as her “personal piggy bank,” according to a report in TODAY Online.

Tan was hired as the company’s human resource manager in 2017 and was promoted to associate director of human resources in May 2019 before D’Perception Singapore discovered her misdeeds.

She was the only person who knew the firm’s payroll system password and was responsible for keying in the workers’ salaries. Tan also printed out the salary sheets and had the managing director and chairman of the company sign them.

Not only did the former employee claim false travel expenses, ranging from S$1,000 to S$10,000 every month, but she also put mobile phone expenses, paid holiday allowances, and other expenses into her claims.

Furthermore, when she was given two checks in August 2017 to deposit S$3,000 to the Central Provident Fund (CPF) for two months’ contributions for a new worker, she deposited the checks into her account instead.

In November 2017, when a colleague saw the additional allowances Tan was due aside from her basic salary in a copy of the salary statement on the printer, the employee told the management about it.

After investigating, D’Perception Singapore filed a police report in January 2020.

For the offence of criminal breach of trust, Tan could have been jailed for up to 15 years and been made to pay a fine. For every cheating charge, she could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined. /TISG

Read also: Bank employee replaces genuine notes with fake bills & blank paper; embezzles S$1.13m from company safe