SINGAPORE — A 36-year-old was on Friday (June 4) fined S$6,000 after she used her company’s debit card to make dozens of unauthorised transactions totalling S$6,283 within six months.

Juliana Dawood, a former operations manager at consultancy firm Thinkplace, spent the money mostly on food orders from delivery application Deliveroo, private-hire car rides and online shopping in 2019 as she was strapped for cash.

She pleaded guilty in court to one count of criminal breach of trust. 

For sentencing, the court took into consideration a second charge of unauthorised access to computer material, in relation to using another woman’s debit card to make online food delivery orders. No further details were given.

Juliana worked at Thinkplace from September 2018 to July 2019. 

She was one of six people entrusted with a DBS bank Business Advance debit card, which she used to make work-related purchases.

From January to July 2019, Juliana made 87 unauthorised transactions amounting to S$4,283 for personal purposes, including rides on transport service Grab. 

She also bought a plane ticket from Singapore budget airline Scoot for S$712, and spent S$169 at event-ticketing service Sistic and S$490 at travel agency WeekendGoWhere as part of these unauthorised transactions.

On July 5, 2019, she further used the debit card to transfer S$2,000 from Thinkplace’s bank account to her own, to settle rent and other personal expenses.

Juliana left the firm soon afterwards. 

Five days later, her replacement at Thinkplace, Ms Lim Li Yi, was reviewing documents that she wanted to send to the company’s accountant when she noticed an unaccounted S$2,000 sum that was transferred to the firm’s petty cash balance via a bank transfer.

Yet there was no record of this, nor did she receive the money from Juliana before the latter left the company.

Juliana’s practice had been to collate her expenditure in a spreadsheet and email it to the accountant.

After reviewing the matter further, Ms Lim realised what Juliana had done. 

She told her managing director and filed a police report.

Juliana returned the full sum to Thinkplace in November last year.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Chng Luey Chi, who sought a S$7,000 fine, argued that Juliana spent the money for “clearly frivolous purposes” and used the debit card once every two days or so.

Juliana’s lawyer Siraj Shaik Aziz from the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme asked for the fine imposed. 

He said that it was not a sophisticated scheme and that his client helped the authorities to identify the fraudulent transactions.

While Mr Siraj initially sought probation, District Judge John Ng rejected this, saying that he thought the best solution was a non-custodial sentence. Juliana also has family support now, the judge added.

Probation is usually offered to offenders under 21 and to adult offenders only under exceptional circumstances.

For criminal breach of trust, Juliana could have been jailed for up to seven years or fined, or punished with both.