SINGAPORE - A 61-year-old man was cleared on Tuesday of dishonestly receiving stolen money from a colleague after the prosecution withdrew the charge against him.

Mr Stephen Ho Chai Sng was granted a discharge amounting to an acquittal.

He had received the money from Mohammad Taufik Mustafa at Tekka Market, Serangoon Road, on May 17 last year.

Ho was originally charged with housebreaking and theft in the premises of Premier Carpet at Jalan Pemimpin, together with 45-year-old Taufik. The charge was subsequently amended to one of receiving stolen property.

Mr Ho, who is represented by Mr Selva K. Naidu, was supposed to have gone on trial until the prosecution withdrew the charge on Tuesday after reviewing the evidence.

Taufik was jailed for 26 months earlier this year for the offences he carried out at Premier Carpet, the company he was employed by. Taufik had claimed that he did it because he was unhappy with his employer as they were underpaying him.

On May 17 that year, he met Mr Ho, who had introduced him to the job, and told him about his unhappiness, and his intention to "do something" about it.

That evening, he went to the company building, forced open the wooden main door and removed $3,427 and RMB1,500 from the cashbox. He stole another $1,800, RM3,000, and RMB4,000 from the director's office and took another $4,000 more, a few cheque books and internet banking tokens from yet another office. He left the building after his criminal activity to meet Mr Ho.

Mr Ho had spent more than a month in prison last year before he was bailed out in July 2014.