SINGAPORE: A former Residents' Committee (RC) manager who took more than S$8,300 (US$6,500) in cash payments belonging to a Residents' Network was handed two months' jail on Tuesday (Jun 17). 

Maslina Mohd Yusof would collect payments from participants of courses or events organised by the Residents' Network, or a balloon sculpting interest group, and pocketed a portion of the money. These events included a durian party, a flea market and a Children's Day carnival. 

The 30-year-old Singaporean pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal breach of trust.

One charge of providing an unlicensed payment service in an unrelated incident was taken into consideration for sentencing. 

Maslina was employed by the People’s Association (PA) as an RC manager for Marine Terrace Haven RC on Aug 29, 2021. 

In 2022 and 2023, her contract was renewed on a yearly basis and on Nov 21, 2022, she was transferred to Tampines Changkat Zone 2 Residents’ Network in the same capacity. Residents' Networks were set up by PA in 2018 to promote greater social mixing among residents across all housing estates.

As RC manager, Maslina's responsibilities included managing the Residents' Network centre, ensuring that courses and events as well as an interest group were properly conducted and that payments to the Residents' Network she was minding were properly collected. 

She was tasked with ensuring that cash payments were deposited into the bank account of the Residents' Network within seven days.

She also needed to put up statements of accounts for every project under the Residents' Network to which she was attached. 

From March 2023, Maslina began misappropriating the money, using it for personal expenses when she faced financial challenges. 

She would take a portion of the cash for her own needs. For example, for the Residents' Network's sole interest group, which was a balloon sculpting interest group, she would keep a portion of the money meant to buy balloons. 

To avoid detection, she delayed depositing the money so that she could replenish it. She would then deposit the replenished amount after the seven-day deadline had lapsed. This would be treated as a late payment. 

However, on several occasions, she was unable to replenish the cash sums she had taken.

Between March 2023 and February 2024, she embezzled money on at least 11 occasions. 

These were related to events such as a Chinese New Year Johor Bahru shopping tour, a Valentine's Day celebration, a block party, a durian party, flea markets and a visit to the Asian Civilisations Museum.

She also pocketed money collected from a course for phonics and reading, and from the balloon sculpting interest group. 

In total, she misappropriated S$8,375 in cash. 

Her offences were uncovered when a group constituency director's governance team, which had oversight of the Residents’ Network, was notified about multiple late payments in 2023. 

When the governance team asked Maslina about the late payments towards the end of 2023, she would give excuses that aroused the team’s suspicions. 

Further checks then revealed that around S$9,000 was unaccounted for in the records.

On Mar 14 last year, Maslina admitted to the misappropriated money when confronted. She made a restitution of S$391 on the same day. 

PA later conducted an internal audit, which established that she embezzled S$8,375.

Maslina ceased her employment with PA on Aug 28, 2024. 

She made a further restitution of S$7,984 last month.

Her lawyer Jared Lee from Regent Law said that his client was truly remorseful and cooperated with the authorities for investigations. 

He added that Maslina, a first-time offender, is now a retail assistant. 

She had been going through a stressful period in her life during the time of the offences, Mr Lee said, asking for two months' jail for his client. 

The prosecution proposed a sentence of two to three months, considering how Maslina had been a public servant who had offended over 11 months. 

For criminal breach of trust, she could have been jailed for up to seven years or fined, or both.