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SINGAPORE: When his Vietnamese girlfriend needed an air ticket to return home during the pandemic, a food court manager waited for the financial assistance he thought he was entitled to to help her pay for it.
After discovering that he was ineligible for cash, he began stealing money from the proceeds of daily food court sales, before turning to gambling in hopes of paying the money back.
Lee Chun Beng, 52, was jailed for two years and three months on Thursday (March 25) after pleading guilty to one count of breach of trust by an employee.
The court heard that Lee began work at SG Eat Food Court in the 100AM Mall on Tras Street on April 4 of last year.
He was tasked with managing the food court operations, including collecting daily sales and managing cash flow.
He began receiving sums of money from the company from November 13, 2020 to November 18, 2020, for a total of S $ 37,151.80.
On November 19, 2020, Lee texted his boss to tell him that he was on sick leave. A day later, Lee resigned and became uncontactable.
The company director went through the safe and found a handwritten note from Lee. In the signed note, Lee wrote that he had taken and used the proceeds from the sales. A police report was filed.
Lee turned himself in at a police station on January 11, 2021, and admitted that he had stolen the cash.
The prosecutor asked for at least 30 months in jail, saying Lee had previous convictions in 1996, 2000 and 2013 for crimes such as cheating and breach of trust.
ACCUSED ASKS FOR OPPORTUNITY
Lee, who had no lawyer and was in custody, said he was deeply sorry for his mistake. He said he had admitted what he did to his boss and gave himself up, and that he wanted “one last chance on my life.”
He said he took the money to buy an air ticket for his girlfriend, who had been told to return to Vietnam during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He thought he was eligible for financial aid of S $ 3,000 from the Ministry of Social and Family Development. When he found out that was not the case, he decided to take the money from the food court first, with plans to pay it back later.
After taking the cash, he was unable to return it and began gambling to try to get the money back to replace it, Lee said.
“Once I realized that I couldn’t do that anymore, I told my boss about the situation,” he said. “I am very sorry for my mistake … Without this pandemic, my girlfriend will also (not) need to return to Vietnam. Unfortunately, there is no excuse for the mistake I made, I will bear the consequences.”
The judge told Lee that his previous history of dishonesty was a significant aggravating factor and that he had not been deterred by the previous jail sentences he received.
However, since she pleaded guilty, left a note for her boss, turned herself in and cooperated in the investigations, she said she would calibrate her sentence slightly lower than what the prosecutor asked for.
For criminal breach of trust by an employee, he could have been imprisoned for up to 15 years and fined.
