Man who fleeced ex-employer gets 24 months’ jail, S$30,000 fine
SINGAPORE — A 49-year-old man was today (Aug 4) sentenced to 24 months’ jail and fined S$30,000 for cheating his former employer of about S$100,000 by inflating claims and for carrying out unlicensed moneylending activities.
The court heard that Liang Lip Chieng, a Singaporean, used his loot to feed his gambling habit or pay off debts. Liang faced 407 charges, but the prosecution proceeded on 66 charges, with all but one for cheating.
As a concrete-pump supervisor, Liang collated the volume of concrete pumped by his workers at the end of each month so the company could pay them. His modus operandi was to inflate the volume so the workers would be overpaid.
Liang would then go to these workers and collect the excess payments from them. His employees did not dare question him or raise the issue with the company’s management as they are all foreign workers trying to earn a living in Singapore, court documents said.
From January 2011 to May 2013, Liang fleeced the company of about S$102,000 this way. His misdeeds were only uncovered by the company’s executive director after he had left the firm.
The court also heard that Liang turned to loan sharks in January 2013, when he came into financial difficulties because of his gambling habit.
To repay his debt with one of these illegal moneylenders, Liang agreed to become an “ATM runner”. He allowed his bank account to be used for more than 300 fund transactions between March and May 2013 for the loan shark.
In court today, Liang pleaded for leniency, saying this was his first time committing such offences and he had cooperated with investigations.
He said he offered to repay the firm the money he had cheated them of, but as they had asked for a “lump sum”, he could not fork out that amount.
Given the number of offences, district judge Hamidah Ibrahim said she could not consider Liang a first-time offender. She also noted that he had cheated the company of a substantial amount of money.
