SINGAPORE – A woman unlawfully moved more than $217,000 of her employer’s monies to her own bank account before transferring the amount to a male online friend.
Wong Oi Ling, 61, had also befriended another man online and opened several bank accounts at his request.
One of the accounts was later used to receive $10,000 from a 43-year-old woman who was a love scam victim.
Wong was sentenced to two years and two months’ jail on Wednesday after she pleaded guilty to two counts of cheating and one of theft.
At the time of the offences, she was working as an accounts and administration manager at Angel Accents, a firm dealing in women’s accessories.
In September 2019, she befriended a man known as Rob Walter Kwok on Facebook.
He told her that he was working in Scotland and the pair became close over time.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Joshua Phang said that in October 2019, Kwok told Wong that he had met with an accident and needed money to pay for an operation as well as other medical expenses.
He also asked Wong if she could send him some money.
She then hatched a plan to transfer funds from Angel Accents’ bank account to her personal one.
On 20 occasions between Oct 22, 2019, and Aug 11, 2020, Wong transferred more than $217,000 of the firm’s cash to her own bank account before sending it to Kwok.
Some time between December 2020 and January 2021, the firm’s bank notified a director at Angel Accents about the fund transfers.
After conducting a check, the director confronted Wong, who came clean about what she had done.
Wong initially agreed to make $1,000 in restitution each month from January 2021. She also told the director that she was expecting an insurance payout of around $100,000 in August 2021.
