SINGAPORE - A security supervisor with Certis Cisco found a woman's credit card at Singapore Expo and used it to pay for his sister-in-law's dental treatment and groceries totalling about $700, a court heard.
On Friday (Nov 25) Narayana Samy Parthasarathy, 54, was jailed for eight months after pleading guilty to two charges - dishonest misappropriation of Ms Rosnita Abdul Rahim's Citibank Visa Rewards credit card, and cheating. Another four charges, including two attempted cheating, were considered.
Ms Rosnita had accidentally dropped her credit card at the Singapore Expo on Dec 27, 2015 after using it to make a payment.
Narayana found it but instead of using reasonable means to return the credit card, he kept it.
Two days later, he accompanied his sister-in-law to Friends Dental Surgeons at Tampines Street 21 for dental treatment, and used the credit card to pay the $357 bill.
During investigations, Narayana falsely claimed that the credit card was handed over to him by his ex-colleague Vijayan Ramasamy, who owed him money.
He claimed that Mr Vijayan had told him that the card belonged to his girlfriend, and that Narayana could use it to offset the debt owed.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Suhas Malhotra said significant police resources were expended during investigations as a result of the false information given by Narayana.
Narayana had made full restitution of $700.75, which is the total value of payments he successfully made using the Citibank card.
DPP Suhas said the most serious aggravating factor in the case was that Narayana committed the offences when he was a uniformed security supervisor police officer.
"Offences like these have the capacity to undermine public confidence in our uniformed services, and it is incumbent that they ought to be punished severely," he said.
Noting that Narayana had committed offences on five distinct occasions, District Judge Samuel Chua said with each successful transaction, Narayana was more emboldened and continued with his cheating spree at Mustafa Centre until the transactions became unsuccessful on Dec 30.
"A deterrent sentence must be imposed on you to deter like-minded offenders,'' he said.
Narayana could have been jailed for up to two years and/or fined for dishonest misappropriation; and up to three years and/or fined for cheating.
Note: The story has been edited for clarity.