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SINGAPORE: An interior designer and shareholder in an interior design company pocketed S $ 134,000 in client payments for renovation projects over a year.
On one count of criminal breach of trust, with two other similar charges taken into consideration, Eugene Chia Hsien Yau, 40, was sentenced Tuesday (November 24) to 10 months in jail.
The court heard that Chia was one of the shareholders of Interior Diary, a firm that was created in 2016 with three other shareholders.
Chia was also a director of a sister company called Liquid Construction, from which he made another $ 20,000 Singaporean. This was one of the charges taken into consideration.
As a project manager at Interior Diary, Chia was responsible for sales and liaison with clients for renovation projects, including collecting payments.
Sometime in early 2017, Chia began embezzling the payments collected for these projects. He would present part of the amounts charged to clients to the company’s accountant, but he would keep the rest and use it for his personal expenses.
Between March 26, 2017 and March 23, 2018, it received S $ 134,381.60 in customer payment money on 11 renovation projects.
The director of Diario del Interior learned of the crimes and filed a police report in March 2019.
Chia’s attorney said his client has a relatively clean record and has made a full restitution. He said his client was severely affected by COVID-19, and that his father came out of retirement to support him.
He asked for a two-week postponement of the sentence, for Chia to do some tinkering for the renovation projects, and to take care of her family’s financial problems.
The judge allowed Chia to begin serving her sentence on December 14. For criminal breach of trust, Chia could have been jailed for up to seven years, fined, or both.
