Former Ninja Van delivery driver jailed for taking S$18,000 from customers

SINGAPORE — Faced with mounting debts from unlicensed moneylenders, a Ninja Van delivery driver resorted to misappropriating S$18,555 that customers handed over to him as payment for their goods.

Derrick Tan Jian Sheng also took 16 mobile phones that were meant to be traded in. 

He was supposed to hand them to his employer but he sold them on online marketplace Carousell instead.

Tan, 35, was sentenced to eight months’ jail on Wednesday (Aug 19), after pleading guilty to a single charge of criminal breach of trust as a servant. 

He began working for Ninja Van on April 16, 2018. Barely a month later, he began his crime spree.

Tan was responsible for collecting cash from customers if they selected the “cash upon payment” option.

For deliveries involving trade-in mobile phones, he had to verify that they were in acceptable condition before handing them over to Ninja Van within 24 hours. 

The value of the mobile phones would be used to offset any payment.

For those deemed unacceptable, Tan took cash from the customers instead. 

From May 22 to June 11, 2018, he made 72 such deliveries, collecting S$18,555 in cash and 16 mobile phones amounting to S$3,850 in trade-in value.

On the afternoon of June 8, Ninja Van’s finance department flagged to Tan's manager multiple discrepancies from deliveries that the driver had completed.

The manager contacted Tan and arranged to meet him on June 11 so that Tan could return the money and explain the discrepancies.

However, Tan did not show up and ignored his manager’s attempts to contact him.

After reporting Tan to the police, the manager tracked him down to M Hotel at Shenton Way, using the global positioning system installed in the company van that Tan drove.

When confronted, Tan admitted to his crimes. He also told investigators that he used the money to repay his debts to loan sharks.

He has since made S$200 in restitution.

His lawyer, Ms Shehzhadee Rahman from IRB Law, said he had “gone to great lengths” to raise the S$200 and wanted to make full restitution but found it impossible due to his financial circumstances.

Tan has also been unemployed for the past year, the lawyer added.

He could have been jailed up to 15 years and fined.