SINGAPORE - A Certis Cisco aviation security officer was fined $4,000 on Wednesday (May 24) for dishonestly misappropriating a tourist's bag at Changi Airport.

Koh Seok Ngoh, who is also known as Wong Wai Fung, now 47, admitted in court to committing the offence on Dec 27, 2015.

She will be jailed for 20 days if she is unable to pay the fine.

The victim was Indian national Ajay Bhaskar. He and his family had arrived at Changi Airport Terminal 3 at around 6.30pm that day and boarded a sky train to Terminal 1 about three hours later.

When they alighted, the court heard Mr Bhaskar realised he had forgotten to take his bag containing items including US$2,800 (about S$4,000) in cash, travel insurance documents, boarding passes and passports.

Meanwhile, Koh, who had boarded the same sky train after completing her shift, spotted the bag under one of the seats.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Parvathi Menon said: "Out of curiosity and greed, (she) took the bag and placed it inside her personal handbag...She did so, so that the CCTV cameras would not capture the bag in her hand."

Koh then went to a toilet after alighting at Terminal 3 and entered a cubicle to check the contents of the bag. She later left it inside the cubicle and went home.

A cleaner found the bag and returned it to Mr Bhaskar at around 6am the next day.

That was when the Indian national found the money missing.

DPP Menon told the court that there was no evidence Koh had taken the cash and the money was never recovered.

But she said that as an aviation security officer, Koh should have known what to do with the bag.

Koh, who was unrepresented, pleaded for leniency.

She managed to pay $1,000 of the total fine and the court ordered her to settle the remaining amount by next Wednesday.

For dishonestly misappropriating the bag, she could have been jailed up to two years and fined.