Account assistant jailed for pocketing S$278,200 from Hougang United Football Club

SINGAPORE — Over about two weeks last year, Tean Tai Tee took large sums of cash on several occasions from her employer Hougang United Football Club.

As an account and administrative assistant, the 25-year-old pocketed S$278,200 in total from two of the club’s safes between Nov 29 and Dec 11, 2018. She did this to pay a man who had promised to get her out of trouble after she was arrested over making suspicious transactions.

But Tean’s crimes came to light on Dec 15, 2018, leading to her second arrest.

On Tuesday (July 30), the Malaysian national was sentenced to two years behind bars after pleading guilty to one count of criminal breach of trust.

This is not the first time that the football club has made headlines. In an unrelated case, Hougang United chairman Bill Ng — who is also the chairman of Tiong Bahru Football Club (TBFC) — and his wife Bonnie Wong were arrested in 2017.

This was prompted by Sport Singapore filing a police report against TBFC for suspected misuse of club funds and a purported attempt by a senior club official to obstruct the completing of audits of the league’s sit-out clubs. The status of the investigation is not clear.

Hougang United is one of nine clubs in the Singapore Premier League, while TBFC features in the second and third-tier National Football League.

HOW IT HAPPENED

On Tuesday, the court heard that Tean’s duties included keeping an account of the money kept in the two safes in the clubhouse and the club’s office. The club kept its sales revenue and earnings in the safes before depositing the money in its bank account.

Tean also issued cash floats for the club’s jackpot machines. Because of her job, she had access to the keys for both safes.

Investigations revealed that on Oct 6 last year, Tean accepted a Facebook friend request from someone named Lily Tan. It is not known who that is.

Lily Tan asked her if she was interested in a part-time job, which involved her using Tean’s bank account for transactions. Tean would earn a 5 per cent commission in return.

Tean agreed and began working for Lily Tan, who introduced her to a colleague known as Steven. Tean gave them her bank account details.

When she began receiving money in her accounts about a week later, she transferred it to Steven as soon as possible.

However, on Nov 8, Tean was told that the police had frozen her accounts. The police told her that they were investigating the transactions, and asked her to head down to the Bedok Police Divisional Headquarters to help with investigations.

Steven told her to tell them that she had taken loans from an unlicensed moneylender, and that she allowed the loanshark to use her accounts to make transactions in place of loan repayments.

After Tean did so, she was arrested and her passport was impounded. When she was released on police bail, Steven told her that he could help to get her passport back for S$100,000.

They eventually agreed to a lower fee of S$30,000.

From then on, Tean decided to steal cash from the club.

On Nov 29, 2018, she waited for the club’s accountant to take a smoke break before taking about S$2,000 to S$3,000 from the office safe.

When she got away scot-free, she continued taking bigger sums of money on an almost daily basis. She would wait until she was alone in the office before doing so.

On Dec 8, 2018, she began taking money from the safe in the clubhouse. In total, she took S$133,000 from there, and S$145,200 from the office safe.

After each occasion, she would deposit the money into bank accounts provided by Steven, and discard the transfer slips.

The club’s accountant discovered her crimes on Dec 15, 2018, and immediately told the general manager what had happened. He then reported it to the police.

Tean has made no restitution to the club.

‘VERY SIMPLE-MINDED GIRL’

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Tan Yanying noted some aggravating factors, including the fact that she continued committing offences when the police told her that the earlier transactions were of a suspicious nature.

Mr Goh Peck San, Tean’s lawyer, sought about 18 months’ jail for his client. He said that when Tean was asked to complete the various bank transfers, “she had no idea they were illegal transactions”.

In arguing that Tean was threatened into doing what she did, Mr Goh also read out some of the text messages that Steven sent to Tean over WhatsApp.

“‘Okay, inform me. If you continue to ignore us, don’t blame us for being ruthless… if we can’t let you out, we can also let you in,’” Mr Goh read out.

Another text message from Steven stated: “You betray(ed) us today, right? Don’t think about getting back your passport. The police are coming already.”

Mr Goh argued that these were clearly threats, describing his client as a “very simple-minded girl” who was coerced into believing that if she did not help, she could get into trouble with the authorities.

“She stepped into something that was wrongful but she didn’t know it’d get her in such big trouble…. Restitution has not been made but in her case, she cannot make it,” he added.

DPP Tan responded that even with the alleged threats, Tean continued taking the money when the police told her it was illegal. It was also clear that Tean had hoped to personally benefit from some of the money she took, as she pocketed far more than what she needed to pay Steven, she said.

“She also sought to obtain money from legal means. There's no excuse as to why she had to dip her hands in the company’s pockets to purportedly resolve her issues with the police and help Steven,” DPP Tan added.

While passing the sentence, District Judge Kessler Soh noted: “While Ms Tean may have received some threats, that really did not justify taking such a large amount.”

For criminal breach of trust as a clerk or servant, she could have been jailed for up to 15 years and fined.