Genki Sushi store manager jailed for embezzling more than S$56,000 from sushi chain

SINGAPORE — A Genki Sushi store manager who embezzled more than S$56,000 over six months was on Monday (June 6) jailed for five months.

Cheah Chen Cay, a 27-year-old Malaysian, had pleaded guilty to committing criminal breach of trust.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Chong Kee En said that Cheah was previously a store manager at the sushi chain’s Orchard Central outlet — a position he had held since January 2020.

As part of his duties, Cheah was required to deposit the cash proceeds from the daily sales into the company’s bank account on a daily basis the next morning.

On 23 separate occasions between June and December of 2020, he misappropriated a total of S$56,119.30 from the company’s safe.

The theft only came to light in January last year when the finance department of Maxim, the parent company of Genki, did a thorough check of the accounts receivable for the sushi chain and discovered discrepancies.

Cheah was questioned during an internal investigation but he pretended that he could not remember what happened to the stolen money.

However, as he was afraid of the probe into the missing money, Cheah deposited S$32,215 into the company’s account on June 21 that year.

However, because the source of the deposit was unknown, further investigations were carried out by Maxim.

Cheah was re-interviewed and he finally confessed to having stolen the money after he was questioned by several heads of department. He also admitted that he had kept the rest of the undeposited money at home.

When the police raided his house, however, they were only able to recover S$20,664.60 that was kept in 23 separate plastic bags, DPP Chong said, as he sought a jail term of between five and six months.

Cheah made a restitution of S$3,239.70 to Genki on Monday, months after his employment was terminated by Genki on Sept 15 last year.

Under Section 467 of the Penal Code, anyone who commits a criminal breach of trust can be jailed up to seven years or fined, or both.