SINGAPORE - Unhappy with the way management had dealt with two particular incidents in the course of his work, a Marina Bay Sands casino dealer decided to take revenge by misappropriating casino chips from the gaming tables.
Jiang Kaiwen, 24, a Singaporean, took $118,000 worth of casino cash chips entrusted to him when he was working at MBS in Bayfront Avenue between March 1 and May 3 this year.
He would pass the misappropriated chips to his friend, Li Zhifan, 24, a student, to help him cash out. On several occasions, Li engaged the help of student Dong Hao, 23, to cash out the misappropriated chips. Both Li and Dong are from China.
On Monday (Oct 3), Jiang was jailed for eight months and 12 weeks for criminal breach of trust of $118,000 worth of casino cash chips and colluding with Li and Dong to overpay them chips when they requested chip change.
The "overpayment'' scam involved Jiang overpaying chips to the duo when making winning payouts to them, making payouts even though they had lost their wagers, and failing to collect their losing wagers.
Jiang, who had pleaded guilty to 20 charges with 70 others taken into consideration, colluded with the pair to obtain $20,275 worth of casino chips for themselves through the use of fraudulent scheme of overpaying casino chips during chip change. Full restitution has been made.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Thiam Jia Min said investigations showed that Jiang, who had been working at MBS since September 2015, was unhappy with the way management had dealt with two work-related incidents.
Feeling underappreciated and resentful, he decided to take revenge by misappropriating casino chips from the gaming tables.
On May 6, the MBS surveillance team conducted audit checks by reviewing CCTV footage of the gaming tables which suffered losses and discovered that Jiang had been misappropriating casino chips from the floats of the gaming tables.
From April 7 to May 8, he stole from the floats 47 times. When there were no patrons at the gaming tables, he would pocket the casino chips in his bermudas that he always wore under his work trousers or in his Pedro shoes.
As it was against the casino's policy for employees to cash out casino chips, he would pass the chips to Li to cash them.
He was arrested at Changi Airport on May 9 when he returned from his holiday in Vietnam. The next day, police recovered $118,000 in cash from his Rivervale Street flat.
Further investigations showed that sometime in March this year, Jiang had shared with Li that he had unintentionally overpaid a patron at one of the gaming tables and it was not discovered by MBS management.
After discussion, they hatched the "overpayment'' scam to cheat the casino. Dong joined in the fraudulent scheme in April.
Dong is serving an eight-week jail sentence while Li is claiming trial.
District Judge Kessler Soh said he hoped Jiang, represented by Mr Ng Lip Chih, would learn from this. He noted from the testimonials given by Jiang's friends, colleagues and national service commander that he had potential. He told Jiang that he must not go back to crime for any reason once he finishes serving his sentence and comes out of prison.
Jiang could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined for criminal breach of trust. For each offence under the Casino Control Act, he could have been fined up to $150,000 and/or jailed for up to seven years.
