SINGAPORE - A former director of technology at the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) was convicted of misappropriating two iPads on Thursday, after a 10-day trial.

Jeganathan Ramasamy, 63, who held the position from 2007 to 2012, had claimed trial to two charges of criminal breach of trust of two iPad 2 tablets, worth a total of $1,877, at SCDF headquarters at Ubi Avenue in September 2011.

As part of his work, he had to interact with major IT vendors of the SCDF, one of which was NCS.

He had obtained the two iPads from NCS at his office to test mobile applications that NCS was to develop for SCDF.

The prosecution's case is that the tablets were entrusted to him by NCS to the SCDF for the purpose of trial. Jeganathan then dishonestly misappropriated the iPad2s by giving one to his daughter and selling the other to his colleague Eric Yap, then SCDF senior director of emergency services, for $200. Commissioner Yap, 46, became SCDF head in 2012.

Jeganathan's defence is that his understanding was that he had been handed the iPad2s for him to buy them in his personal capacity.

District Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan said he found the evidence of the witnesses from NCS was substantially consistent - that there was no agreement for NCS then group general manager of the defence and homeland security department Wong Soon Nam, 52, to look into the possibility of helping Jeganathan get the iPad2s for his personal purchase.

He adjourned the case to Nov 16 for Deputy Public Prosecutor Hon Yi to make his submission on sentence and mitigation by defence lawyer Sanjiv Rajan.

The maximum penalty for the offence is 20 years' jail and a fine.