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SINGAPORE: A food stall assistant who misused Food Junction’s card top-up system to siphon money was jailed for two years and eight months on Thursday (Dec 18).<\/p>\n
Zhang Gui, 47, pleaded guilty to one charge under the Computer Misuse Act, with two similar charges taken into consideration for sentencing.<\/p>\n
Food Junction started running its card programme in October 2021. Patrons could pay for their meals using stored value in their Food Junction cards and enjoy a discount when they did so.<\/p>\n
Initially, patrons topped up their cards by approaching individual stalls and using the stall’s NETS terminal to add value to the cards.<\/p>\n
The top-up method changed after Nov 1, 2021 when Food Junction introduced self-service kiosks.<\/p>\n
These kiosks were eventually discontinued in September 2023, and Food Junction’s card programme stopped on Nov 28, 2023.<\/p>\n
Zhang started working at the Food Junction outlet in Great World City in October 2021, before the kiosks were introduced.<\/p>\n
The court heard that after the kiosks came into service on Nov 1, 2021, Zhang realised he was still able to top up cards using his stall’s NETS terminal.<\/p>\n
Between Oct 30, 2021 and Nov 21, 2023, he performed 2,070 transactions to top up Food Junction NETS Flashpay cards with a total value of S$41,370 (US$32,000).<\/p>\n
He used the money stored in the cards to pay for food and drinks for himself and his friends at various Food Junction outlets.<\/p>\n
On Nov 21, 2023, NETS flagged the transactions at Zhang’s stall to Food Junction after finding them suspicious.<\/p>\n
This was because S$10 or S$20 was loaded into a card each time without a corresponding payment being made, and because stalls were no longer supposed to help patrons top up cards.<\/p>\n
A manager of the Food Junction outlet reviewed security footage and saw Zhang loading money into multiple cards at his stall.<\/p>\n
Zhang was confronted by the outlet’s managers on Nov 23, 2023 and admitted to the transactions. He was arrested that day.<\/p>\n
The Chinese national has not made any restitution to Food Junction.<\/p>\n
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ashley Chin sought 30 to 40 months’ jail for Zhang.<\/p>\n
She highlighted the serious cheating offence underlying Zhang’s misuse of the top-up system and his long period of offending over more than three years.<\/p>\n
He also abused the trust placed in him as a stall assistant, as he was only able to commit the offences because of his job, said the prosecutor.<\/p>\n
Zhang could have been jailed for up to 10 years, fined up to S$50,000 or both.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n