Primary school employee who pocketed S$36,000 from students jailed
Screengrab from Google Street View of Frontier Primary School at 20 Jurong West Street 61.
SINGAPORE: A former customer service officer at a primary school who pocketed about S$36,000 worth of cash collected from students was sentenced to four months' jail on Monday (Apr 1).
Siti Rafeah Abd Hamid, 44, had worked at Frontier Primary School in Jurong West since 2012, the court heard.
However, five years into her job as a customer service officer with the school, Siti Rafeah pocketed S$36,265.50 in students' funds.
Between January 2017 and November 2017, she was entrusted with money collected by teachers from the students for activities like school trips, co-curricular activities (CCAs) and Children's Day celebrations.
She was to record the collection of money in the school system before handing the cash to the school's operation manager, who would deposit it into the bank account of the school.
However, she did not do so, instead admitting later that she had used the money for her own expenses. She also did not record the sum in the school system, in order to avoid detection.
The misappropriation was discovered in July 2018, when the school was unable to pay a CCA vendor as the amount of funds in the school's bank account was too low.
After internal investigations, the school found that Siti Rafeah had not handed over the S$36,000 to the operation manager.
The vice-principal made a police report saying that there were missing funds from the school's bank account.
Siti Rafeah pleaded guilty to one charge of criminal breach of trust by a servant, with a second charge taken into consideration for sentencing.
For her crimes, she could have been jailed for up to 15 years and fined.
In response to queries from CNA, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education (MOE) said it has been taking steps to tighten the accountability of billing and collections through a billing system for schools.
"We also encourage the usage of cashless payment, and where parents are unable to do so, for the schools to be more vigilant in cash management," she added.
She said that Siti Rafeah is currently on no-pay leave and that MOE will begin its disciplinary process now that she has been sentenced.
