Jail for Pizza Hut manager who illegally claimed and redeemed about S$18,000 in NTUC LinkPoints
SINGAPORE — Over a few months, a Pizza Hut manager illegally accrued about S$18,000 in NTUC LinkPoints, which she used to buy items at various NTUC outlets.
Nurazleen Rahim did this by claiming LinkPoints for herself that Pizza Hut customers did not. She sometimes artificially inflated the number of points on her end as well.
On Monday (June 27), Nurazleen was sentenced to four months and two weeks’ jail.
The 31-year-old pleaded guilty to cheating NTUC Link, which is part of a group of social enterprises under the labour movement.
Customers who made purchases at Pizza Hut could earn five LinkPoints for every S$1 spent. At the end of the month, NTUC would bill Pizza Hut S$1 for every 150 LinkPoints awarded by Pizza Hut.
Between March 2 and May 23 last year, Nurazleen credited such points to her two NTUC cards on 79 occasions without making any purchases herself.
When customers bought food at her outlet and did not present their own NTUC cards to claim the points, she used her own card. On some occasions, she also artificially inflated the amount of points to be awarded by keying in a larger number on the NTUC LinkPoint terminal.
She thought she would get away scot-free because she thought the awarding of LinkPoints was not frequently audited, the court heard.
When her card stopped functioning properly in April last year, she borrowed her boyfriend’s card for her ruse. He did not know her intention.
She managed to get about 2.5 million LinkPoints, which amounted to a total monetary value of S$17,688. She admitted to using the points to make purchases at various NTUC FairPrice outlets around Singapore.
On June 1 last year, her supervisor lodged a police report stating that their finance department had found some anomalies in NTUC's bill to Pizza Hut Singapore.
In particular, a large number of LinkPoints had been awarded to Nurazleen's NTUC cards from March to May last year.
She confessed to her wrongdoing when her supervisor confronted her during a video call.
On Monday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Cheah Wenjie sought at least six months’ jail, noting that Nurazleen has made no restitution for her offences and that she cheated a significant amount of money.
She will begin serving her sentence on July 18 and remains out on bail of S$5,000.
For cheating, she could have been jailed for up to three months or fined, or punished with both.
