Jail for office manager who drank $4,300 worth of tonic, kept $10,000 meant for director's relative

Samuel Devaraj
The Straits Times
Oct 20, 2023

An office manager who made fraudulent claims and committed criminal breach of trust involving $330,547.77 was sentenced to 18 months’ jail on Friday.

Lian Peishan, 39, pleaded guilty to one cheating charge, one charge of criminal breach of trust by an employee and two charges of forgery for the purpose of cheating.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Shao Yan said Lian was working with Newzon Capital, which is involved in asset and portfolio management, and her job scope included making claims from the company for any purchases made for it or its director.

Sometime before March 18, 2020, Newzon Capital’s director asked Lian to buy bottles of tonic for his relative. She bought $4,300 worth of bottles of tonic and claimed the money from the company.

The director, who was not named in court documents, also asked Lian to pass $10,000 to the same relative. Lian asked the company’s finance manager, Mr Lee Chin Wei, for the sum, and he withdrew $10,000 from his bank account and passed it to her. He then claimed it from the company.

However, over multiple calls with Lian, the relative refused to accept the tonics and the money.

Lian did not inform the director about this, but instead drank the tonics and kept the $10,000.

In April 2021, Lian altered two invoices – one for the deposit cost for a car bought by the director and the other for furniture he bought.

After she paid the deposit amounting to $20,000 for the car, she altered the invoice by changing the deposit amount for the car stated in it to $50,000. She did the same for the furniture invoice, changing the cost of the furniture from $30,165.02 to $55,986.88.

She then submitted the altered invoices to Newzon Capital to make reimbursement claims, and the monies were paid out to her.

On 10 occasions between Oct 21, 2020, and April 15, 2021, Lian submitted invoices to Newzon Capital to make various other reimbursement claims. These claims involve $151,044 and US$4,762 (S$6,535).

After Newzon Capital’s staff discovered that there were some irregularities in the claims Lian made, the company conducted investigations and Lian’s offences were discovered.

She was arrested on May 7, 2021, and released on bail the next day. Her employment with the company was terminated on May 10, 2021.

As Lian had paid for some of the items she submitted claims for, the loss suffered by Newzon Capital was $278,773.77.

Lian has made restitution of $222,270.10.

DPP Ng asked the court to sentence Lian to 18 to 25 months’ jail, saying the amount involved in each charge is substantial.

He added: “For many of the accused’s offences, she used forged invoices by altering genuine invoices. This made her offences more difficult to detect, as the forged invoices would look like they were genuine ones.

“The difficulty in detection is supported by the long period of offending by the accused.”