SINGAPORE – A personal assistant stole $57,000 in cash from his employer’s cars, before apologising to the man in a text message that also said: “Your secrets are safe with me.”

Ong Jia Le was arrested after the Australian employer, who felt that Ong was trying to blackmail him, made a police report on Sept 10, 2022.

Details about the “secrets” were not disclosed in court documents.

Ong, 27, pleaded guilty to a theft charge and was sentenced to eight weeks’ jail on Monday.

As a driver and personal assistant to the 38-year-old Australian, Ong’s tasks included running errands and helping him with general administrative matters.

Ong was aware that the man’s two cars often had between $10,000 and $20,000 stored in them.

At around 4am on Sept 10, 2022, Ong went to his employer’s condominium and took $57,000 in total from the cars.

After that, he booked a plane ticket to Hanoi, Vietnam, on a flight that was scheduled to leave Singapore later in the morning.

“My driver did not show up to work, he blocked my wife (on the phone) and stopped taking my calls,” the employer told the police.

“(Then he) sent me a message saying he was sorry. His message also said ‘Your secrets are safe with me’, which I take it to mean that he is trying to blackmail me in the sense that if I go to the police, he will reveal certain secrets to my wife or whatever.”

Court documents did not state what happened next, but Ong was hauled to court in April 2023.

He has since made full restitution to the Australian employer.