Grab driver jailed for keeping S$33,600 wrongly transferred to him by Grab, spent ⅔ of it

S$12,000 was subsequently returned to Grab about two months later.

Matthias Ang | May 23, 2019, 04:58 PM

Yes, it is a crime in Singapore to not return money wrongly transferred to you.

On May 23, Grab driver Wong Siew Wai was jailed for three months for misappropriating about S$33,600 that had been wrongly transferred to him by the company, CNA reported.

The sum of money was originally meant as payment to a vendor, Wow! Gadgets.

The amount of S$33,678.25 was instead wrongly transferred to Wong's POSB savings account, on Aug. 21, by a finance associate at Grab.

Contacted about mistake

This resulted in Grab contacting Wong twice on Aug. 30 and 31 about the mistake.

However, Wong refused to return the cash and became uncontactable afterwards.

Accused checked with POSB about refusal to return money

It was reported that Wong then called POSB instead to ask if action would be taken against him for refusing to return the money that had been wrongly transferred.

A representative from POSB bank told him no action would be taken against him for refusing to return the money that had been wrongly transferred, Deputy Public Prosecutor Claire Poh said.

Used two-thirds of money

About S$11,000, or a third of the money from Grab remained in his bank account by Oct. 25 2018, CNA further reported.

That was the day Wong was interviewed by the police, as part of a response to a police report that had been filed on Oct. 24 by a Grab regional finance controller.

Up to about two-thirds of the money had been used by Wong for expenses, such as bill payments, bank transfers and CashCard top-ups.

Some of these bank transfers included payments for his son's school fees.

Additionally, Wong also withdrew some S$8,300 in cash.

S$12,000 returned to Grab

Wong subsequently returned S$12,000 to Grab on Oct. 29, consisting of the S$11,000 that still remained in his POSB account and an additional S$1,000, as per CNA.

Wong also admitted to misappropriating the money, explaining that his rationale for doing so was because of financial difficulties.

For misappropriating Grab's money, Wong could have been jailed for up to two years, fined, or both.

He has since pleaded guilty to one charge of misappropriation and will begin his three-month sentence on May 27, after the court allowed his sentence to be deferred.

Top image from BMKP US Twitter