Maid agency employee duped clients into paying S$92,000 into his own PayNow account, gets jail

He changed his PayNow account name from “Derek” to “1st Allbest Human Resource” and told clients to make payments to this account.

He claimed that it was the company’s bank account, and even generated a QR code using his own account which he gave to clients for payment.

When the clients scanned the QR code, they would see the recipient’s name as “1st Allbest Human Resource” and were deceived into paying money into Chai’s personal account.

More than 40 victims were cheated into transferring a total sum of S$92,508.40 to Chai’s PayNow account over about five months.

The sums ranged from S$50 to S$3,500.

To keep up the appearance that he was generating income for the company, Chai paid about S$3,800 into the company’s bank account.

On Mar 6 last year, Chai’s superior confronted him about the discrepancy between his high sales records and the relatively low income he had generated.

Initially, Chai lied and said that his clients were not punctual with their payments.

When his superior said he would verify this with the clients, Chai admitted to taking the money. He made restitution of S$10,000 the next day after a demand by his superior, who lodged a police report.

The prosecution sought 17 to 18 months’ jail for Chai, saying the offence was “carefully planned to deceive the clients and the company”.

He not only abused the trust placed in him by the victims, but also his company’s trust in him, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Vishnu Menon.

“If the accused person had not stood out as the highest performing salesperson, it is likely that he could have (and almost certainly would have) carried on offending,” Mr Menon added.

The judge said there was a substantial amount involved in this case, with aggravating factors such as the breach of trust and premeditation by changing his PayNow display name.

He said the sentence reflects the need for general deterrence to protect the integrity of Singapore’s digital payment system.

For his charge of cheating over many occasions, Chai could have been jailed for up to 20 years and fined.