Chemistry teacher jailed for stealing S$3,350 from students

SINGAPORE — Desperate to clear his debts, a Chemistry teacher at a private school stole S$3,350 in cash from two students.

Ong Wee Koe Sandridge, 37, pleaded guilty to one count of theft and was sentenced to six weeks’ jail today (Nov 19). Another theft charge was taken into consideration for sentencing. Ong had S$7,000 in credit card debt and had taken a S$3,000 loan from licensed moneylender Winz Credit at the time of his offence, the district court heard. On Oct 16 last year at about 2.40pm, Ong, who had finished his last class of the day at St Francis Methodist School, stepped into an empty classroom with the lights turned off. Students of the class, who included Ong’s 17-year-old victim, had gone for a physical education lesson.

The girl had left her bag on a chair. Ong opened it and took S$2,050 before placing her wallet back into the bag. The victim had intended to use the money to pay for her school fees, the court was told. Ong took S$1,300 from another student that afternoon.

The first victim lodged a police report after returning to the classroom at around 3.20pm and discovering the money missing. Ong used S$1,200 of the stolen money to repay Winz Credit and spent the remainder on transport and daily expenses, the court heard.

In Ong’s mitigation, lawyer Louis Joseph said his client regrets his actions and was found by a Raffles Hospital psychiatrist to have an immature and regressive way of coping with stress from work and his marriage. Ong, who trained at the National Institute of Education and has a Bachelor of Engineering in Materials Science with a minor in Chinese from Nanyang Technological University, would dissociate himself from his thoughts and actions, and engage in self-harm.

He has made restitution to the first victim and stands ready to do so for the second victim, who has graduated and returned to Vietnam, said Mr Joseph. Ong could have been jailed up to seven years and fined on each charge of theft.