SINGAPORE - An SMRT station manager who misappropriated about $14,000 was jailed for five months on Thursday (Oct 8).

Abdurachman Alwi Masjhoer, 38, was attached to Newton MRT station when he committed the offence between Feb 12 and 14 this year. He pleaded guilty and is no longer with the company.

A district court heard that his duties included collecting cash from the general ticketing machine and the passenger service centre.

He would remove the boxes containing notes and coins from the general ticketing machine and replace them with empty ones.

He would then push the boxes containing money into the store at the station.

He would be present when officers from Brink's Singapore, who serve as security couriers, arrive to collect the money and place them into special bags and seal them.

As for the collections from the passenger service centre, he would tally the amount with the operator on duty before putting the cash into the special bags and seal them. These bags would be be slotted into a safe at the store.

Between Feb 12 and 14, Abdurachman abused his position and involvement in handling cash to misappropriate money for his own use.

When the Brinks officers came to collect the money bags, he told them to leave certain bags behind as he needed to make some changes to the cash declaration form.

Instead, he took the bags of money home and misappropriated sums ranging from $2,659 and $3,903 on three consecutive days. He claimed to have used the money to repay debts owed to unlicensed moneylenders.

He has made partial restitution of $1,096.

The maximum penalty for the offence is 15 years' jail and a fine.