SECURITY officer Kumaran Subramaniam claimed he was robbed by two men while escorting $83,000 from the Grand Hyatt Hotel to a nearby Citibank branch in July last year.

His accomplices, Gunaselan Dharmiah, 25, and Rajan Mariappah, 20, pleaded guilty last December and were jailed 15 months each.

The trio were then working for Active Security and Investigation Services.

The firm was contracted in October 2005 by the hotel for two years to collect cash and cheques and deliver these to the Citibank branch in Orchard Road, about 2km away.

After a 30-day trial which ended last month, the 26-year-old was convicted and sentenced to two years and eight months jail on Friday.

District Judge Francis Tseng heard that Kumaran was Active Security's operations manager and was to collect a sealed orange bag containing $83,580 and some cheques from the five-star hotel at Scotts Road at 2pm on July 30.

He was to handle it with another officer, but arrived alone at the hotel in a company car.

Gunaselan, a Malaysian and a permanent resident here, had testified that Kumaran called him at '1pm plus' to arrange a meeting near Dhoby Ghaut where the money changed hands at 2.05pm.

However, phone records obtained by Kumaran's lawyer S.K. Kumar did not show any such call.

Kumaran's partner on escort duty, Mr Steven Seah, also testified that he found it unusual that Kumaran, who was in charge of deployment and escort duties, had assigned him elsewhere on short notice.

The trio was arrested after police learnt from Grand Hyatt that among the stolen cash was a $10,000 Brunei note. With its serial number, police discovered that it had been changed into Malaysian currency by Rajan at a moneychanger in Johor Baru.

Investigations then revealed that the two accomplices had deposited it into bank accounts with Malaysian banks.

About $64,000 has since been recovered.

Kumaran is appealling against the conviction and sentence and was released on $40,000 bail.