24-10-2023 (SINGAPORE) An administrative assistant in Singapore, who harboured growing resentment towards her employer and felt undervalued as an employee, resorted to misappropriating her company director’s credit card for personal shopping sprees on online platforms like Shopee, Lazada, and others. This audacious act resulted in a staggering expenditure of S$29,246 (equivalent to US$21,416) over a five-month period. She further used her employer’s bank account to settle her own credit card bills, ultimately causing losses exceeding S$45,000.
The perpetrator behind this intricate scheme is Jocelyn Lee Sock Hui, a 28-year-old Singaporean administrative assistant. On October 24, she received a sentence of 15 months in jail, and was additionally instructed to compensate her victim, the company director, with S$23,767.
Lee had previously made partial restitution of S$22,000. Her guilty plea encompassed two charges, specifically, cheating and criminal breach of trust as an employee. The court also took three additional charges into consideration during the sentencing process.
The Case: Jocelyn Lee commenced her employment as an administrative assistant at Hai-Ou Co in 2014. Her responsibilities involved providing support to the victim, Hai-Ou’s director, Mr Lee Kin Choi, a 78-year-old businessman. She handled various administrative tasks, including paperwork, purchase orders, quotations, and invoices. Crucially, Mr. Lee entrusted her with his credit card information and online banking details, as he relied on her to facilitate payments and generate bank statements, given his limited familiarity with technology and online matters.
The transformation in the dynamic between Lee and her employer began to manifest itself before March 2020, as she felt increasingly underappreciated in her role. This dissatisfaction eventually drove her to exploit Mr. Lee’s trust by illicitly using his credit card details for personal online shopping escapades on platforms like Shopee and Lazada.
Furthermore, she accessed her employer’s bank account to settle the credit card bills incurred by using his card and to clear her own credit card dues. This illicit operation took place over five months, spanning from March to July 2020. During this period, on a staggering 77 separate occasions, Lee leveraged her employer’s credit card to purchase items for her own personal use on Shopee, culminating in an expenditure of S$29,246.45.
What makes this case even more egregious is Lee’s attempt to conceal her misdeeds through forgery. She ingeniously falsified records, including paper and photocopies of consolidated bank statements, in an attempt to obscure the unauthorised transactions. These fabricated documents were subsequently handed over to her unsuspecting employer to evade detection.
The tipping point occurred when Mr. Lee’s daughter-in-law, having discovered the malfeasance, lodged a formal police report against Jocelyn Lee on August 24, 2020. It was only at this juncture that restitution to the victim, totalling S$22,000, was made.
During the sentencing hearing, the prosecutor advocated for a jail term spanning 17 to 20 months, citing the substantial sums involved, the protracted duration of the offences, the abuse of trust, and the elaborate measures taken to cover up the crimes.
The presiding judge granted Lee the opportunity to commence her jail term in December. Additionally, she was given an ultimatum to make full restitution by that time, failing which she would be subject to another three weeks in jail as a default consequence.
