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32 months' jail for clerk who used employer's cashcards to spend S$117,000 on gambling, other expenses

SINGAPORE — For more than three years, a clerk's illegal scheme went undetected by his employer as he pocketed more than S$117,000 by using the company's cashcards hundreds of times for his own expenses such as gambling.

Kyaw Zay Ya, 36, pleaded guilty to misappropriating funds from his employer between June 2019 and September 2022.
Kyaw Zay Ya, 36, pleaded guilty to misappropriating funds from his employer between June 2019 and September 2022.
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  • Kyaw Zay Ya, 36, pleaded guilty to three counts of misappropriating more than S$117,000 through company-issued cashcards and FlashPay cards
  • The court heard that he would use a company debit card to top up to a maximum of S$450 on each card
  • He would then use the money for personal expenses, which included placing bets at Singapore Pools 
  • He was sentenced to 32 months’ jail 

SINGAPORE — For more than three years, a clerk's illegal scheme went undetected by his employer as he pocketed more than S$117,000 by using the company's cashcards hundreds of times for his own expenses such as gambling.

Kyaw Zay Ya's illegal conduct was eventually uncovered when a director of food importer Freshdirect noticed an unusually high number of transactions being performed on company-issued cashcards and FlashPay cards. 

On Friday (May 5), the 36-year-old Myanmar national pleaded guilty to three counts of misappropriating sums ranging between S$10,359 and S$79,768, and was sentenced to 32 months' jail.

Another charge of misappropriating funds was taken into consideration for sentencing.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Norman Yew told the court that as the firm's account payable clerk, Kyaw Zay Ya's duties included topping up Freshdirect's cashcards and FlashPay cards using a company-issued debit card linked to its United Overseas Bank bank account.

He was given control over company funds so that he could hand out topped-up cashcards and FlashPay cards to its drivers, mostly so that they could make payments for parking fees or Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) charges on the road. 

Between June 2019 and September 2022, he used Freshdirect's debit card to top up 19 cashcards and 35 FlashPay cards — all of which were owned by the company — to the maximum top-up limit of S$450. 

He used these cards to pay for his personal expenses, which included placing bets with Singapore Pools. In all, he misappropriated S$117,385.

In an effort to cover his tracks, the clerk drew up and submitted fake payment vouchers to the company to try to portray the amount spent as legitimate logistics expenses that had been incurred by the company.

His illegal scheme was uncovered only in September last year when a company director noticed an unusually high number of cashcard and FlashPay transactions, which led to an internal investigation.

He was eventually arrested by police on April 5 this year.

In delivering his sentence, District Judge Eddy Tham Tong Kong said that the case served as a "cautionary tale" on how gambling is not a good way to solve financial woes and just "digs a bigger hole" for the person.

Other than a reference to the bets that Kyaw Zay Ya had placed with Singapore Pools, no other details of his involvement with gambling were given in court documents.

The judge added that the clerk had not only offered no restitution to his employer for the misappropriated funds but had also "betrayed the trust" that had been shown in him by the company.

For misappropriating company funds, Kyaw Zay Ya could have been jailed for up to 15 years and fined.

Related topics

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