Ex-director who embezzled S$1 million from printing company and forged his qualifications gets jail
File photo of a man with a payslip. (Photo: iStock)
SINGAPORE: A former director and secretary of a printing company forged documents to embezzle about S$1 million from the firm.
When he was found out, the other director of the company made checks and realised he had lied about his qualifications when he first applied for a job at another firm under her.
Peter Nah Kim Chye, 58, was sentenced on Friday (Jan 6) to 63 months' jail.
He had earlier pleaded guilty to four charges including cheating and forgery. Another seven charges were taken into consideration.
Between March 2010 and October 2016, Nah worked as a secretary at I Dzzign and was also one of the company's directors.
He was tasked with ensuring prompt payments to suppliers and vendors, recording payments and overseeing accounting records and bookkeeping.
He was entrusted with blank cheques, blank payment vouchers and blank telegraphic transfer forms which had been pre-signed by company director Ng Lai Hoon.
She did so as she was away often on business trips and the arrangement was intended to ensure prompt payments to the company's vendors.
On Oct 19, 2016, Nah resigned from the company.
Ms Ng checked the company accounts and realised that Nah had misappropriated significant sums of money from the company. She lodged a police report.
The company lost a total of S$1.04 million across all 11 charges Nah faced. No restitution was made.
I Dzzign commenced civil proceedings against Nah in the High Court. During the proceedings, Nah declared that his highest educational qualification was a Primary 3 pass result.
Ms Ng remembered that Nah had told her during his job application that he had a O-Level certificate. She checked with the Ministry of Education in 2020 if this was true, and MOE confirmed that there was no such record.
Nah had first applied for a job with another company, Flo-Prints and Packs, in 2009. Ms Ng was a director of this company at the time.
In his email application, he attached his resume and three educational certificates including an O-Level cert, a diploma in marketing and a certificate in marketing.
He had forged the documents by photocopying educational qualifications belonging to other people, covering their names with white paper, scanning them and digitally editing his name in.
The prosecutor sought at least 66 months' jail, pointing to the extended period of about five years over which the offences were committed.
Editor's note: This article has been updated following an amendment by the State Courts on its website regarding the length of the offender's jail sentence.
