Ex-MOM officer gets 8 months' jail after taking urgent half-day leave to go on shopping spree with credit card he found
SINGAPORE — After finding a stranger's credit card from the side of a road, Seah Guo Rong decided to request for urgent half-day leave from his Ministry of Manpower (MOM) job to go on a shopping spree.
Using the card, he topped up his EZ-link card, then bought a gold ring for S$6,330 before selling it for S$4,500. He later used the proceeds of the sale for his own expenses, as well as to buy lottery tickets.
On Thursday (Oct 20), Seah, 36, was sentenced to eight months’ jail for his actions earlier this year.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of cheating. Another three charges, including dishonest misappropriation of property and converting his benefits from criminal conduct, were taken into consideration for sentencing.
In the State Courts on Thursday, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Keith Thirumaran told the court that Seah was earning about S$5,000 a month as a MOM officer when he found the credit card at the side of a road in Hougang on March 16 this year.
Court documents said he picked up the card, took it home and then began his work-from-home duties.
But at around 10am, he asked for urgent half-day leave in the afternoon, and was granted the time off.
Following this, he went to Hougang MRT Station at around 1pm and topped up his EZ-link card with S$20 by using the misappropriated card.
He then took the train to Chinatown MRT Station and walked around the area looking for a jewellery shop. He eventually went to Golden Watch Gold & Jewellery in People's Park Complex, where he told the staff members there that he was looking for a pure gold ring.
Signing the receipt with a fake signature he made up on the spot, Seah managed to purchase the gold ring using the card. He also attempted to buy a gold bangle worth S$12,060 but the transaction was rejected by the payment system.
Later that same day, Seah sold the gold ring at a Maxi-Cash outlet and disposed of the credit card and receipt for the ring at City Square mall.
He later also traded his EZ-link card for a new one in order to get rid of the evidence, the court heard.
WAS FINANCIALLY BURDENED: LAWYER
On Thursday, DPP Thirumaran sought eight to 10 months’ jail, arguing that Seah committed the offences out of greed and even took leave from work to carry them out.
Nevertheless, the prosecutor acknowledged that Seah has since made full restitution to the jewellery shop, as well as DBS Bank which bore the S$20 loss for the EZ-link top-up.
In mitigation, Seah’s lawyer Chia Boon Teck told the court that his client was “normally a law-abiding citizen” but succumbed to the temptation of using the credit card “after years of being weighed down by mounting financial demands made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Mr Chia said that Seah was unemployed from August 2018 to March last year and depleted his savings to cope with his expenses. This was worsened by the birth of his son in end-2018.
“Unwilling to burden his wife who was recovering from childbirth, and his elderly parents… he bore the weight of his family’s financial burden,” the defence counsel from Chia Wong Chambers said.
The lawyer said that Seah used the proceeds of S$4,500 for domestic purposes, as well as to buy Toto tickets “out of desperation for a miracle”.
“He was in dire straits... Nobody commits a crime to buy Toto tickets,” Mr Chia added.
Seah’s application for a private-hire driver’s licence has also been turned down, said the lawyer.
In response, DPP Thirumaran said that despite Seah's financial difficulties, he was earning a monthly salary of S$5,000.
In sentencing Seah, District Judge Kow Keng Siong considered the circumstances of his offences and said that he recognised it arose from an opportunistic incident.
However, the judge said that he could not ignore the fact that Seah had disposed of the credit card and ring receipt.
In response to TODAY's queries, a MOM spokesperson said that the ministry had "placed him under close supervision" pending the outcome of police investigations.
He subsequently resigned and has no longer been employed by MOM since Sept 2 this year.
For cheating, Seah could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined.
