Woman who spent it on her high-living partner is jailed for 5-1/2 years
By
Elena Chong, Courts Correspondent
Frances Leong Kit Jin forged her boss' signature on cheques and banked the sums into her own account, spending the money on her married lover -- PHOTO: SPF
A WOMAN was so besotted with her married lover that she systematically siphoned more than $800,000 from her employer over four years to pay for the high life she led with him.
Frances Leong Kit Jin, 30, an administrative officer with Fuji Horiguchi Engineering in Jurong, did it a little at a time: She repeatedly forged her boss' signature on cash cheques for sums of between $500 and $5,000 and banked these into her own account.
Where money went
ITEMS seized by the police from Frances Leong Kit Jin's home included:
The court heard that she paid for the car loans, petrol bills and other living expenses of her lover Harry Ng Kok Huat; she also picked up the tab when they travelled, and indulged his hobbies of collecting raw stones, gems, crystals and Chinese teas and pots.
She spent lavishly on Japanese meals for him; she paid for his massages here and overseas.
Leong pleaded guilty to 15 charges, mainly for forgery involving almost $67,000; another 320 charges involving $754,693 were taken into consideration.
Her penalty: 5-1/2 years in jail.
Apart from items the police have seized - including $2,000 from her lover and $52,000 in jewellery and watches from her home - no other restitution has been made.
Leong began helping herself to company funds in October 2003, 2-1/2 years after she started work in the company, which provides engineering services to the shipping and marine industry.
Her lawyer P.O. Ram said she did what she did because she was broke from spending on herself and her lover, whom she met in 1996.
Her offences came to light when the managing director of the company was alerted by the bank to discrepancies in his signatures on two cash cheques. Upon checking, he realised he had not signed for either of them and stopped payment.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Der Lim said the company's internal audit showed that Leong misappropriated $821,615 between Oct 27, 2003 and Sept 11, 2007.
Elaborating on the 15 charges, he said that on Oct 30, 2003, she deceived her boss into believing that her claim for a reimbursement allowance of $1,848 was legitimate.
On 13 other occasions, she forged his signature on cash cheques which she fed into her own POSB account; the 15th charge was for pocketing $2,679 in petty cash.
Mr Ram said it was love at first sight when Leong met her lover 12 years ago, when she was 18, and he, a 39-year-old father of three with no steady job.
That was when she began splurging on him to impress him.
Over the years, she had conceived six times and aborted each of her pregnancies, said Mr Ram. When she was arrested, however, her lover dumped her.
She has been in remand since September, and does not want to trouble her family to bail her out.
Her lawyer said she regrets bringing pain and suffering to her parents and the losses she has cost her employers.
