Skip to main content

New! You can personalise your feed. Try it now

Advertisement

Advertisement

3.5 months’ jail for condo manager who pocketed close to S$20,000 in maintenance fees, sinking fund payments

SINGAPORE — A condominium manager was tasked to collect maintenance fees and sinking funds from the residents of Harvest Mansions on Havelock Road, but pocketed close to S$20,000 over more than four years instead.

Rumi Abdul Rahim pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal breach of trust and was jailed 14 weeks.

Rumi Abdul Rahim pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal breach of trust and was jailed 14 weeks.

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

SINGAPORE — A condominium manager was tasked to collect maintenance fees and sinking funds from the residents of Harvest Mansions on Havelock Road, but pocketed close to S$20,000 over more than four years instead.

He used the money to pay licensed moneylenders and for his personal expenses, the court heard on Wednesday (Sept 23). 

Rumi Abdul Rahim, 47, who was working for facilities management firm C&W Services, pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal breach of trust and was jailed 14 weeks.

District Judge Edgar Foo noted that Rumi had tried to cover up the act by doctoring the condominium’s accounts, which allowed him to keep up the ruse for years. 

“These are clear aggravating factors that I cannot discount,” he said.

Rumi’s lawyer Daniel Atticus Xu urged the court to consider a 10-week jail term, noting that the defendant has a newborn daughter who is two months old.

Mr Xu said that Rumi now works as a healthcare attendant at a hospital and will not be able to be re-employed there after being released from prison even though he has been “coping well” on the job.

FACTS OF THE CASE

Court documents stated that Rumi misappropriated the funds from 2013 to 2018.

The matter was not discovered until the condominium held an annual general meeting on May 25, 2018, when someone raised a concern about the authenticity of certain financial reports.

C&W started an internal investigation upon receiving this feedback, and found that someone had tampered with copies of the financial report that were presented at the meeting.

Rumi became the prime suspect since he was the only one who had access to the financial reports, so C&W sacked him in June 2018. 

It was not until a new property manager had replaced him did the firm realise that S$19,962 was missing.

The new manager confronted a resident of the condominium, thinking that she owed the outstanding sum, but she said that she had been handing the cash to Rumi.

Rumi has since made full restitution.

For each charge of criminal breach of trust, he could have been jailed up to seven years or fined, or both.

Related topics

steal condominium Harvest Mansions court crime

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.