Jail for employee who cheated dance school out of NTUC Link loyalty points worth over $3,900
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SINGAPORE – A dance school administrative assistant who cheated her employer out of almost 392,000 NTUC Link loyalty points, valued at nearly $3,920 in total, was sentenced to two weeks’ jail on Wednesday.
Liew Yu Er, whose duties at Dancepointe Academy in Pasir Ris included crediting Linkpoints to customers of the school, had logged the points into her own NTUC Plus! card. The multi-function card for National Trades Union Congress members can be used for banking and payments.
Liew subsequently used the Linkpoints in her card to pay for items such as food at FairPrice outlets. The 23-year-old Malaysian pleaded guilty to a cheating charge on Wednesday.
The prosecution told the court that social enterprise NTUC Link administers a programme where participants are rewarded with loyalty points known as Linkpoints when they complete transactions with NTUC Link’s business partners.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Benedict Chan said Dancepointe Academy was one of NTUC Link’s business partners. On 145 occasions from August to November 2022, Liew credited nearly 392,000 Linkpoints to herself using a Network for Electronic Transfers (Nets) device.
To accumulate that many Linkpoints, a person would have to complete transactions worth around $292,000 in total, said the DPP. He told the court: “Initially, Liew only credited Linkpoints that customers did not redeem into her card. Liew later started crediting Linkpoints to her card even where there was no qualifying transaction by customers of Dancepointe Academy.”
Liew’s actions were discovered in November 2022.
On Nov 15, an NTUC Link administration manager received an inquiry from FairPrice to verify the number of Linkpoints belonging to a member registered under Liew’s particulars.
The manager found nearly 392,000 Linkpoints had been credited into Liew’s account and, on Nov 23, alerted the police on the abnormal number of Linkpoints in the card. She also contacted Liew’s employer, who confronted the offender. Liew came clean about what she had done and was arrested on Nov 30.
Liew, who was not represented by a lawyer, pleaded for leniency on Wednesday. Without revealing details, she told the court she was a scam victim and had used the points to get items for her daily needs.
An offender convicted of cheating can be jailed for up to three years and fined.
