A CERTIS Cisco police constable who abused his position of trust by filching $2 million while on duty at the cash processing centre was jailed for seven years on Thursday.

In sentencing Stanley Ong Beng Hock, District Judge Liew Thiam Leng said the 28-year-old's role was to protect and look after the security of the money that was entrusted to him.

'Instead of fulfilling his responsibilities, he has abused his trust and taken the money which was under his care,' he said.

The amount involved was substantial, he added, and the theft had an impact on the security of the company concerned.

Ong, a Malaysian, had pleaded guilty to stealing $2 million from his employer at Certis Cisco on Jalan Afifi in Paya Lebar on April 12.

He also admitted to moving $1.2 million of the stolen cash to Malaysia, as well as moving it without declaring it. Under the law, a person has to make a declaration if he moves more than $30,000 in cash out of Singapore.

During mitigation last week, Ong told the court he was willing to be caned for a shorter jail sentence, but was told that the offences he had committed carried no caning, only imprisonment and a fine.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Jean Chan said Ong, who had been on the job for about a year, stole the money while he was in charge of delivering nine consignments of cash from the cash processing centre on the fourth storey of Certis CiscoI to the vault on the first level.

Pressing for a stiff sentence, DPP Chan said Ong had planned the offences, using his knowledge as an auxiliary police officer.

She said the blatant abuse of trust and position by Ong was both reprehensible and abhorrent. His offences affected and undermined the integrity of the public security services provided by Certis Cisco.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.