HR Employee in Singapore Arrested for Giving Herself $148,000 in Unauthorized Salary Increase

A human resources worker in Singapore has been jailed for 18 months for making false payment claims involving US$148,000. According to South China Morning Post (SCMP), Tan Lee Nah, 53, was responsible for the payroll system at D’Perception Singapore, an interior design company. In May 2017, just two months after joining the company, she began filing false expense claims until she was caught in November 2019. In those 2.5 years, she managed to give herself $148,000 in unauthorized salary increases to finance your child’s tuition fees. fee and medical bills from her parents.

According to SCMP, a judge said Ms Tan treated the company’s coffers as her “personal piggy bank”. The court found that she claimed false travel expenses, ranging from $750 to $7,300 per month.

From January to November 2019, she added cell phone expenses, holiday bonus payments and some extra expenses to her claims. In 2017, she was asked to transfer money to the Central Provident Fund (CPF) as a two-month contribution for a new employee. However, she misappropriated the checks and placed them in her account, the outlet reported.

Notably, Ms Tan was the only person with the password to the company’s payroll system, and it was routine practice for her to enter all employees’ salaries into the system.

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Their scheme was exposed when an employee saw a copy of Ms Tan’s salary statement on the printer, which showed that she had received allowances in addition to her base salary. The employee alerted management, who launched an investigation and called the police a month later.

The 53-year-old woman told the court that the money she embezzled was spent on her son’s education and her parents’ medical bills. She pleaded guilty on June 3 of this year to two counts of false refund and one count of criminal breach of trust for cashing two checks. She did not compensate her employer because she did not have the financial means to do so.