Singapore HR boss jailed for stealing $148K to pay child’s tuition

Tan Lee Nah, 53, a human resources associate director at interior design firm D’Perception Singapore received the sentence earlier this month after pleading guilty to two counts of cheating and one charge of criminal breach of trust, The Straits Times reported.

Tan started working for the company as a human resource manager in March 2017 and was promoted to associate director of human resources in May 2019 before her misconduct came to light.

She was the only employee who knew the password to the firm’s payroll system and was responsible for inputting employee salaries.

The court found that she began siphoning funds from the company just two months after she started working for D’Perception, according to the South China Morning Post.

She made false claims for transport and other allowances every month, resulting in her getting paid an extra sum of S$1,000-10,000 monthly.

She also misappropriated and pocketed two cheques totaling about $3,000, which she was supposed to transfer to the Central Provident Fund as contributions for a new employee.

Tan embezzled a total of S$195,786 from the company over two and a half years before her misdeeds were discovered by a colleague in November 2019.

She was terminated from her position the following month, and the company’s finance director filed a police report in January 2020.

Tan told the court that she used the misappropriated money to pay her child’s tuition fee and her parents’ medical bills, as reported by The Independent Singapore.

She has not reimbursed her employer as she does not have the finances to do so.