On Mar. 3, 2019, Lee Kah Yeow dialled the police to make a robbery report.

The 49-year-old Kopitiam manager told the authorities,

“I just got robbed. A man entered my office and took a knife. He asked me for my money and ran off. He is a dark skin Chinese man (sic).”

The incident had supposedly taken place at the Kopitiam outlet in Rivervale Plaza.

However, it was later discovered that Lee had earlier stole money from the outlet's safe, amounting to a sum of S$26,043.20, over a period of time.

The manager had misappropriated the funds to pay off his S$40,000 gambling debt, court documents revealed.

Therefore, Lee decided to stage a robbery with a friend in order to cover up the missing money.

Wanted it to look convincing for CCTVs

About one week before the staged robbery took place, Lee met up with two men in Jurong: Tan Lye Meng, 48, and Hoi Hoy Leong.

Lee offered his friend, Hoi, the "job" of robbing the Rivervale Kopitiam outlet.

Hoi rejected the offer, and told Lee to speak to Tan instead.

The Kopitiam manager proceeded to make Tan the same offer. He then told Tan that the latter should commit the robbery on Sunday, as the takings tended to be bigger on weekends.

Lee also instructed Tan to:

• Bring a knife to the "robbery"
• Make Lee put his head inside the safe before fleeing the crime scene

According to Lee, this would make the scene look more convincing for the CCTV cameras.

In return for his help, Lee told Tan that he could keep the entire sum stolen from the safe during the staged robbery.

Tan agreed to the proposal, and the two exchanged handphone numbers before leaving.

Carrying out the "robbery"

On Mar. 3, around 11:45am, Lee told Tan to carry out the staged robbery.

While Lee was at his desk inside the outlet's management office, Tan entered the office, pulled out a knife from a black clutch bag he was carrying, and pointed the knife at the manager.

Tan then placed the bag he was carrying onto the Lee's desk.

The "robber" then instructed Lee to fill the bag with money from the safe, which the Lee did.

Lee made sure to place the bag inside the safe while filling it with cash.

This ensured that the CCTV cameras inside the management room would not be able to capture the exact amount stolen during the staged robbery.

Once the bag was filled, Tan told the manager to put his head inside the safe.

When Lee did as instructed, the "robber" took the bag of cash and left the scene.

In total, Tan dishonestly received S$6,000 worth of stolen property from the staged robbery.

The entire sequence of events above was captured by the outlet's CCTV cameras.

Lee was aware of the presence of the CCTV cameras at all times, the court said.

Owed money to three different banks

Prior to the "robbery" on Mar. 3, Kopitiam did not know that Lee had been siphoning company funds.

Timothy Chern, Kopitiam's Head of Internal Audit, said that the last time he had audited Lee's records of the monies inside the outlet's safe box was in Sep. 2018.

This was in accordance with Kopitiam's half-yearly audit frequency.

The S$40,000 that Lee owed were to three different banks, debts that were accumulated by gambling at the casino.

In comparison, Lee earned S$2,900 a month as Kopitiam manager.

He had been employed as a manager by Kopitiam for around 18 years as of 2019.

Of these 18 years, he worked two years at the Rivervale Plaza outlet.

His duties as a manger include handling the daily cash sales and ensuring that the daily operations of the outlet ran smoothly.

At the end of each business day, Lee was supposed to check the previous day’s sales, count the cash inside the safe, and fill up the “Day End Report” (a document that shows the outlet's sales for the day).

Only one other Kopitiam staff had keys to the safe, which contained cash comprising retail sales monies, payments made by tenants, or kiosk sales.

After being charged on Jan. 17, 2020, Lee made full restitution of S$26,043.20 to Kopitiam on Jan. 21.

25 weeks' jail

Lee was sentenced to 25 weeks’ imprisonment on Mar. 12 for criminal breach of trust.

His accomplice, Tan, was previously convicted on six proceeded charges on Jan. 9, including one count for his role in the staged robbery.

For that count alone, he was sentenced to four months' imprisonment.

According to The Straits Times, Tan was sentenced to a total of seven years and seven months' jail with six strokes of the cane for additional drug-related offences, as well as a separate housebreaking charge.

Top image via Alamy, Jerry Quek Cheng Pang and Babu Hilary on Google Maps