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Temple staff member pocketed over $38k in donations and membership fees
Christine Tan
Tham Lai Ying was an administrative staff of Toa Payoh Seu Teck Sean Tong temple when she committed the offences. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
SINGAPORE – An administrative assistant, who was entrusted to collect money for a temple, lined her own pockets with over $38,000 of public donations and membership fees.
Tham Lai Ying, who was working at the Toa Payoh Seu Teck Sean Tong temple at the time, had used the misappropriated monies to buy groceries and dine in restaurants daily.
On July 25, the 44-year-old woman pleaded guilty to one charge of criminal breach of trust as an employee.
The court heard that Tham started working for the temple in February 2022 and received a monthly salary of $1,600.
She was in charge of collecting donations from the public for charitable causes and membership fees.
After she issued receipts for the money, she would keep the sums in a locked drawer. Once all the receipts in a receipt book were issued, she was supposed to hand over the book and the cash to the temple’s finance executive.
About one month into the job, Tham started to misappropriate the temple’s money. She took $38,799 in total – $37,799 in donations and $1,000 in membership fees.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Lim Li Ting said Tham stole the money out of greed, upon seeing the large sums of cash collected.
In an attempt to cover up the crime, Tham withheld some of the receipt books from the finance executive.
Said DPP Lim: “Initially, (Tham) also intended to cover up her misdeeds by replacing the misappropriated amount later on without others’ knowledge.
“However, as the misappropriated amount grew, she could not afford to and did not do so.”
In May 2022, the finance executive noticed the missing books and alerted the temple’s secretary-general. An internal audit was conducted the next month.
When confronted by the secretary-general, Tham admitted to her misdeeds and was suspended.
DPP Lim said Tham agreed to repay the stolen money through instalments, but has not done so to date.
Tham’s lawyer S.S. Dhillon asked for sentencing to be adjourned to a later date, as Tham needed time to sort out issues including her outstanding rental and legal fees.
An unrelated charge under the Computer Misuse Act and a theft charge will be taken into consideration for her sentencing, which is scheduled for Aug 13.
For criminal breach of trust as an employee, Tham could be jailed for up to 15 years and fined.
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26-Jul 2024 Friday
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