A judge remarked that the HR employee treated the company’s funds as her “personal piggy bank.”
A human resources employee in Singapore has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for making fraudulent pay claims totaling $148,000. According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), Tan Lee Nah, 53, was responsible for the payroll system at D’Perception Singapore, an interior design firm. She began submitting false expense claims in May 2017, just two months after joining the company, continuing until her scheme was uncovered in November 2019. Over these 2.5 years, she illicitly increased her pay to fund her child’s tuition fees and her parents’ medical bills.
SCMP reported that a judge criticized Ms. Tan for treating the company’s funds like her “personal piggy bank.” The court found she had claimed false travel expenses ranging from $750 to $7,300 each month. From January to November 2019, she further added mobile phone expenses, paid holiday allowances, and other extra expenses to her claims. In 2017, she was tasked with transferring money to the Central Provident Fund (CPF) for a new employee’s two-month contributions but misappropriated the cheques for herself, according to the outlet.
Ms. Tan was the only person with the password to the company’s payroll system, routinely inputting all staff salaries into the system. Her scheme was exposed when an employee discovered a copy of Ms. Tan’s salary statement on the printer, revealing she had received allowances beyond her basic salary. The employee alerted management, leading to an investigation and police involvement a month later.
The 53-year-old explained in court that she used the misappropriated funds for her child’s education and her parents’ medical bills. She pleaded guilty on June 3 to two charges of fraudulent reimbursement and one of criminal breach of trust for cashing two cheques. She had not repaid her employer due to financial incapacity.
