Woodgrove teacher trial: Accused admitted to taking S$10,000, says police investigator

SINGAPORE: A teacher accused of misappropriating about S$40,000 in students' funds allegedly told police officers who took her statement that she had taken only S$10,000.

This emerged in court on Tuesday (Jan 29), the sixth day of the trial against Woodgrove Secondary School teacher Maslinda Zainal, 44.

Her defence lawyer, however, claimed that she signed the statement under threat from the police, and that she had repaid the full S$40,000 before she was even charged.

The former Head of Department for English is accused of over-collecting money from the school's students in 2016 and 2017. The funds were meant for learning materials, which were printed by the school bookshop.

The alleged crime was discovered by the school's lower-secondary head for English, who asked the bookshop owner about the materials and found the alleged discrepancy in the invoices and the amounts collected from the students.

READ: Woodgrove teacher trial: Principal did not know money was collected from students, says defence

On Tuesday, the investigation officer in charge of her case, Inspector Aruna Ramasamy of Jurong Division, took the stand as the prosecution's witness.

She described how she took six statements from Maslinda, with the first one at 11.59pm on Apr 7, 2017, the day she was arrested at the school. 

In one of the statements, Maslinda admitted to taking about S$10,000, Ms Aruna said.

She added that she later told Maslinda that the school principal had tabulated figures and estimated that the amount allegedly misappropriated came up to about S$40,000. 

According to the testimony of a Ministry of Education investigation officer in charge of the case, Maslinda had said that she spent the money on assessment books, practice papers and coloured markers.

READ: Woodgrove teacher told MOE officer students' over-collected funds used on books, stationery

ACCUSED WAS TOLD TO AGREE: DEFENCE

Maslinda's defence lawyer Singa Retnam charged that Ms Aruna and her colleague, Station Inspector Navindeer Singh, had told Maslinda that they would let her off only if she agreed with them and returned the money she had taken.

He disputed Ms Aruna's testimony that Maslinda had been composed during statement-taking, and teared only towards the end. 

Instead, Maslinda was in tears throughout and had not eaten, after a long day of being interrogated since about 10am, Mr Retnam charged.

Addressing Ms Aruna, the lawyer said: "I put it to you that at this time she was being shouted at (by your colleague Mr Singh) and put in fear of what was going to happen to her, that she was going to face a life sentence."

Because of these allegations, the prosecution called Mr Singh to the stand as a witness, and the court stood down to wait for him as he had been working a 24-hour shift.

When Mr Singh took the stand on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Retnam said: "I put to you that you shouted at the accused and told her you are facing a very serious charge and you are going to be sentenced for life before the recording of the statement started."

Mr Singh disagreed.

"I put to you that you also shouted 'you will never be able to see your family again', and you also shouted at her to cooperate or else," said Mr Retnam. "And both you and Ms Aruna promised her that if she had paid back the money after you all came up with the figures, you all would let her off."

Mr Singh again rejected these allegations.

The trial continues in June.