Concrete worker jailed two years and fined for cheating company out of $100k

Liang cheated G &W Ready-Mix of $102,047 between January 2011 and May 2013. PHOTO: ST FILE

SINGAPORE - A concrete pump supervisor who cheated his employer out of more than $100,000 was jailed for two years and fined the minimum $30,000 on Tuesday.

Liang Lip Chieng, 49, falsely inflated the claims for concrete pumped by his workers at the end of each month then handed the forms to his superior for approval.

His boss did not realise that the forms only contained Liang's signature and not the respective operator's.

Liang told the operators - who were foreigners and did not dare to question him - that they had been overpaid and would collect the excess money from them.

He would then spend it on gambling or paying off his gambling debts.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Francis Zhang Zeyi said that Liang's scam was discovered in mid-2013, after he had left G &W Ready-Mix.

The Sungei Kadut Drive company's executive director stumbled upon some of the inflated tariff claim forms containing only Liang's signature.

The human resources department checked all the claims supposedly verified by Liang, and discovered that his misdeeds dated back to January 2011.

The company lodged a police report in December 2013.

Liang cheated G &W Ready-Mix of $102,047 between January 2011 and May 2013.Separately, he also made multiple bank transfers to help an unlicensed moneylender in his business.

He pleaded guilty to 65 charges of cheating and one under the Moneylenders Act. Another 341 charges were taken into consideration.

No restitution has been made.

He could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined for cheating. The maximum penalty under the Moneylenders Act is a $300,000 fine and four years' jail.

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