Jail for former paint company employee who left S’pore after underreporting sales figures to pocket over S$20,000
SINGAPORE — An assistant order executive who used to work at International Paint Singapore was sentenced to eight months' jail on Wednesday (May 17) for underreporting sales figures and pocketing close to S$20,000 over a period of five months.
Cheong Chin Liang's dishonest acts were uncovered by the company's compliance manager during his exit interview, shortly before he left the company.
The 44-year-old Malaysian pleaded guilty to a charge of abusing his role by selling products at their original retail price but underreporting the sale price to the company and pocketing the difference.
He not only misappropriated the money collected but also intentionally did not issue invoices to customers.
A second charge of a similar nature was taken into consideration during sentencing.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Kwang Jia Min told the court on Wednesday that investigations against Cheong started on March 18, 2017, after International Paint Singapore's compliance manager lodged a report.
However, investigations could not continue because Cheong left Singapore for Malaysia and remained outside of Singapore until Oct 26 last year when he was arrested at Marina Bay Cruise Centre.
Police investigations later revealed that some time in 2016, Cheong was facing financial difficulties and needed to settle his credit card debts.
As the company's assistant order executive, Cheong had been responsible for processing customers' orders as well as collecting payment from them.
He then decided to abuse his role in the company between October 2016 and February 2017 when he sold International Paint Singapore's products, which included paint and protective coatings, to customers at the retail price and underreported the sale price to the company, thereby pocketing the difference.
In one such sale, he sold items to a Malaysian company MPC Industrial Coatings for a retail price of S$28,289.55 but reported the sale price as S$9,261.80 and kept the difference of S$19,027.75.
To avoid letting customers find out what he was doing, Cheong also did not issue any tax invoice to customers after the sale was made.
Cheong misappropriated a total of S$20,182.08 from the sales that he made, which he used to resolve his financial difficulties and pay for his personal expenses, DPP Kwang said.
The offence only came to light when International Paint Singapore's compliance manager conducted an exit interview with Cheong on March 6, 2017, but he did not make any restitution to the company before his last day on March 10.
DPP Kwang urged the court to consider a six to eight months' sentence and a compensation order of S$32,135.58 since Cheong had committed the crime with a "degree of planning" over a period of five months.
Cheong, who was not represented by a lawyer, expressed concerns over the compensation order and asked the court if an instalment plan would be permitted instead, and if he would be given time to raise the money.
When asked by District Judge James Elisha Lee about his inability to make a full payment, Cheong claimed that he had initially wanted to make restitution to the company upon his arrest but was not given any instructions on how to do so, so he used his money for his living expenses in Singapore instead.
Taking into consideration his current circumstances, the judge told Cheong that no restitution would be considered in his sentencing because it was "clear to him" that Cheong would not be able to make any compensation, even with an instalment plan.
For dishonestly misappropriating company money, Cheong could have been jailed up to 15 years and fined.
