Jail for former Yellow Ribbon subsidiary employee who pocketed S$6,255 from 266 Nets FlashPay cards meant for halfway house residents

SINGAPORE — After pocketing 266 cards from e-payment provider Nets that were meant for residents at the Selarang Halfway House, a former employee of Yellow Ribbon Industries would ask for a refund from Nets so that he could transfer the stored value of the cards to his own bank account.

Aw Yong Kim, then holding the job of assistant programme executive, pocketed S$6255.25 in total from the Nets FlashPay cards. 

The 46-year-old was sentenced to three months’ jail after pleading guilty to a charge of criminal breach of trust on Wednesday (Nov 29). Three other similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

In response to TODAY's queries, Yellow Ribbon Singapore said that Aw's employment at Yellow Ribbon Industries was terminated in March 2022. Yellow Ribbon Industries is a wholly owned subsidiary of Yellow Ribbon Singapore — a government agency focused on rehabilitating inmates and ex-offenders — that runs Selarang Halfway House in Changi. 

Yellow Ribbon Singapore also said that the cards are intended to help newly-placed residents with their transportation needs, which generally involve attending job interviews and  traveling to relevant government agencies for assistance related to finance and housing. 

The court heard that Aw was able to take the cards out of a cabinet at the halfway house without anyone noticing because there was no proper documentation for how many cards were issued at Yellow Ribbon Industries.

The organisation added that it had reviewed and tightened the processes and controls for issuing stored-value cards and vouchers to residents at the halfway house.

Cards drawn by programme managers and issued to assistant programme executives for distribution are now "better documented to detect anomalies". This includes extra weekly checks conducted by programme managers to ensure that the cards are issued to residents. 

"Both Yellow Ribbon Singapore and Yellow Ribbon Industries take a serious view of any misconduct by our officers. All officers are expected to uphold exemplary standards of integrity, discipline and personal conduct," the organisation said. 

UNDOCUMENTED ACCESS 

Assistant Public Prosecutor (APP) Lydia Goh told the court that it was Aw’s job to issue Nets FlashPay cards to new residents at Selarang Halfway House. 

From August 2020 to January last year, Aw would take the key for the cabinet containing the cards from the assistant programme manager’s drawer and use the cards he took to get a full refund of the stored value. 

He would then throw away the fully refunded card or put them back in the cabinet where they were stored, since there was no proper documentation to track how many cards were issued to him, APP Goh said. 

On March 14 last year, assistant programme manager Tommy Cheang, who had access to the cabinet, detected something amiss in the stack of cards and used the Nets mobile phone application to check their stored value.

He then discovered that 35 cards with a total value of S$1,330 were all refunded and disabled, and reported the matter to his superiors on the same day. 

That day, Aw had also asked for 23 cards from Mr Cheang, who then used the Nets app to check the value of the cards instead of handing Aw the cards directly. That was when Aw knew he had been caught.

Knowing that Aw was responsible for the documentation and issuance of the Nets cards, the deputy director and executive director of Selarang Halfway House arranged to meet him the next day. 

At the meeting, Aw admitted that he had misappropriated company funds and was instructed to hand over all documents related to the issuance of the Nets cards, vouchers and gift cards and to provide bank account documents detailing how much was the sum in refund he took from the cards. 

However, Aw failed to report for work two days later and Mr Goh Kim Pok, an operations manager at Yellow Ribbon Industries, made a police report the next day that Aw had admitted to misappropriating company funds. 

'MISTAKE' MADE DURING FINANCIAL HARDSHIP 

APP Goh sought a sentence of three to four months’ jail grounded on the prolonged period of one year and three months over which the offence took place. 

She noted that Aw had pleaded guilty to his offence at an early stage and had so far made partial restitution of S$4,000 of the amount he had taken. 

Public Defender Vadi PVSS, who represented Aw, argued for leniency, saying that Aw was “not a career criminal” but was “pushed into” a situation where he made a mistake during a period of financial hardship. 

Mr Vadi said that Aw’s family was a young, middle-class family living from “paycheck to paycheck” whose financial difficulties snowballed during the Covid-19 pandemic, which was when Aw committed the offences. 

He added that Aw was “shocked” upon learning that his superiors made a police report because he had planned to resolve the issue internally with the company. 

As for him failing to provide the requested bank documentation to his employers, Mr Vadi claimed that Aw had faced a “real sincere problem” in getting the documents because it cost S$20 a page to produce. 

In delivering Aw’s sentence, District Judge Ow Yong Tuck Leong said that the misappropriation of the Nets cards was not “one off" and had occurred over a prolonged period of time, thus the similar charges taken into consideration for sentencing. 

The judge added that he did not find exceptional circumstances in this case that would allow financial hardship to be relied on as a mitigating factor and said that Aw could have turned to other avenues for financial assistance. 

For committing criminal breach of trust, Aw could have been jailed for up to 15 years and fined.