National Safety Council of Singapore's former honorary secretary-general and two of its ex-employees were charged on Thursday with misappropriating funds belonging to the Traffic Police.

Sia Chin Hwee, 58, now a taxi driver, faces 21 charges involving a total of $815,714 while Saidon Hassan, 39, and David Kan Tuck Pui, 71, face 20 and nine charges involving $695,714 and $286,991 respectively.

Sia allegedly helped Saidon 12 times in 2007 and 2008 to siphon between $3,150 and $136,213 belonging to the Traffic Police in the DBS Bank account to pay for unauthorised transactions.

On eight other occasions, he is said to have conspired with Saidon and Kan to commit criminal breach of trust of $6,170 to $67,859 when the pair instructed one Kyaw Khaymar Pine to prepare cheques to Hean Nerng Invesments when the transactions were not authorised by the Traffic Police.

On one occasion on or before Nov 30, 2009, Sia allegedly conspired with Kan to misappropriate money when the latter instructed a member of the council's staff to prepare a letter authorising a transfer of $120,000 from the UOB account to another bank account which Sia later signed.

Sia and Kan were each offered bail of $15,000 while Saidon's bail was set at $100,000.

Their cases have been adjourned to July 11.

In 2011, it was reported that Commercial Affairs Department was investigating "key members'' of the council for "possible misappropriation of funds'' following a report filed by the Traffic Police.