Nurse transferred surgery patients' banking information to his digital wallets, used S$11,000

SINGAPORE — While patients in his ward went for surgery, a nurse added their bank cards to his digital wallets using the one-time passwords (OTPs) sent to their phones. 

He then used more than S$11,000 from their cards and attempted to obtain another S$32,000 worth of goods and services.

Muhammad Ilyas Mohamed Noor, 23, was jailed for 32 weeks on Monday (March 4), after telling the court that he was "grateful" to be caught.

He pleaded guilty to eight charges including cheating and offences under the Computer Misuse Act, with another 14 charges taken into consideration.

The court heard that Ilyas was a nurse at Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH).

He stole from at least four patients, using the same modus operandi.

When the patients went for surgery, he would take their bank cards and phones and link the cards to his digital wallets.

The first patient was a 69-year-old man who went to NTFGH for surgery in September 2022.

While the man was undergoing surgery, Ilyas stole his handphone and POSB debit card from the patient's locker. 

He then retrieved an OTP sent to the man's phone and used it to link the bank card to his own digital wallets and Google Play Store.

When the patient returned from surgery, he noticed a male employee meddling with his locker. However, he was drowsy and could not see what the man was doing.

When the patient checked his belongings later, he found everything intact.

Ilyas used the patient's card to top up his EZ-Link card, and pay for his daily expenses such as food and online game purchases.

The patient noticed unauthorised transactions and lodged a police report.

After this first incident, Ilyas realised he could gain more money and repeated his actions against other victims.

They include a Bangladeshi patient at the hospital, who discovered S$1,000 was missing from his account when he tried to withdraw money and realised only about S$18 was left inside.

SENTENCING

Deputy Public Prosecutor Eugene Phua on Monday sought nine to 12 months' jail for Ilyas, revising his earlier position of 10 to 14 months' jail downwards because Ilyas had since made full restitution.

However, Mr Phua noted that the total financial loss caused to the victims was at least S$11,623.81.

He had also tried to make top-ups amounting to about S$32,000, but these had failed.

Ilyas, who was unrepresented, said he was very remorseful towards the victims and was very sorry for the damage done.

"I just would like to apologise for the damage done and the crime being done by me," he said. "I've realised that I've done a huge wrong in terms of breaching of trust and committing theft towards the said victims and I realise that all this is very wrong. I wouldn't repeat it again."

He added: "I am really grateful that I was caught by police because things could've gone much more worse because I was blinded by greed."

District Judge Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz said it was purely fortuitous that the additional transactions were unsuccessful, if not his sentence would have been "far greater".

She said she could tell from his mitigation plea and steps towards restitution that Ilyas was sincerely remorseful.

While he still had to face the consequences, she said she had "every belief" that this would be his final time coming to court based on his attitude towards reforming himself. CNA