Needing to repay his gambling debts and loans obtained from unlicensed money lenders, a 33-year-old Malaysian working in Singapore stole over 10,000 chickens from the company he worked for.

In the process, Au Yong Seh Enn caused the company to suffer losses amounting to about S$30,500.

According to Today, on Feb. 13, he was sentenced to 16 months' jail after pleading guilty to one count of theft.

Court documents seen by Mothership show that Au Yong had been working as an operations manager at Hy-Fresh Industries, a company that distributes both frozen and fresh chickens, since December 2013.

He was primarily in charge of buying, selling, and delivering chickens to customers.

In November 2019, the company's assistant accounts manager decided to conduct a check on Hy-Fresh's chicken stock for that day, having heard from a colleague that there were discrepancies in the records.

Huge shortages

What the assistant accounts manager discovered was major shortages in the companies stock over a period of about three months from September to November 2019.

• In September 2019, there were only 164 chickens in stock even though there should have been 2,501 chickens. This amounted to a shortage of 2,337 chickens.
• In October 2019, there were only 889 chickens in stock even though there should have been 5,157 chickens. This amounted to a shortage of 4,268 chickens.
• From Nov. 1 to 18, 2019, there were only 576 chickens in stock even though there should have been 4,547. This amount to a shortage of 3,971 chickens.

Additionally, there was also a shortage of five cartons of chicken wings.

In total, 10,576 chickens were unaccounted for, with Hy-Fresh Industries suffering losses of S$30,472.06.

Stole to pay off debts

Once she had discovered the shortages, the assistant accounts manager alerted Au Yong to the matter.

While he initially told her that he would look into it, he later came back on Jan. 6, 2020 and confessed to stealing the chickens and the chicken wings.

He had sold the chickens to third parties thrice a week between Sep. 1 and Nov. 18, 2019, without his company's consent, pocketing the earnings.

Au Yong estimated that his ill-gotten earnings amounted to about S$50,000 to S$60,000.

The money was — at least in part — used to settle gambling debts and repay loads obtained from unlicensed moneylenders.

Court documents indicate that the stolen chickens were never recovered, neither had Au Yong made any restitution.

For committing theft by clerk or servant of property, Au Yong could have been jailed up to seven years and fined.

Top image by William Moreland via Unsplash