Woman, 28, changed Marine Parade clinic's QR code to her own account, cheated clinic of over S$55,400

A 28-year-old clinic assistant has been sentenced to 14 months in prison after she defrauded more than 509 people of over S$55,400 within half a year.

According to Shin Min Daily News, Amirah Noor Huda (transliteration from Chinese) had done so by posting her personal bank QR code at the clinic she worked at to collect money from patients.

She pleaded guilty to one charge of fraud on Apr. 14, with another charge for contravening the Gambling Control Act taken into consideration for her sentence.

Worked at a Marine Parade clinic from July 2022 to June 2023

From July 2022 to June 2023, Amirah worked at a clinic located at Block 86, Marine Parade Central.

She was mainly responsible for registering patients, dispensing medicine and collecting payment.

The clinic only accepts payment by cash or PayNow transfers.

Began cheating patients in January 2023

Shin Min Daily News reported that from Jan. 5 to Jan. 10, 2023, four patients wanted to pay their bills via PayNow, following their consultations.

Amirah gave them her phone number instead and collected a total of S$392 from the four patients.

Afterwards, from Feb. 9 to 28, she acted again in the same manner and ended up collecting S$3,273.54 from 21 patients.

She also issued invoices to mislead them.

She became more daring, and the number of people she defrauded increased.

Between Mar. 9 and 28, she defrauded 75 patients of S$8,839.63 in the same manner.

Changed the clinic's QR code to her personal code in April 2023

In April 2023, Amirah changed the clinic's QR code for payment to that of her personal bank account.

This meant that when patients scanned the QR code for payment, their money would go directly into her account.

Before she finished her shift, Amirah would change the QR code back to try and cover her tracks.

In addition, she changed the name of her bank account to that of the doctor's to trick patients into believing they were paying the clinic.

Through this method, she collected S$19,883.56 from 183 patients from Apr. 3 to 29, another S$15,653.27 from 153 patients from May 2 to 31, and finally, S$7,395.01 from 73 patients from Jun. 1 to 20.

Discovered on Jun. 21

On Jun. 21, her actions were uncovered when a patient sent a screenshot of their payment to the doctor.

The doctor, Maninder Singh Shah, was shocked to see that the number was Amirah's number, even though his name was listed as the payee.

He discovered Amirah's actions after checking the clinic's CCTV camera and his daughter eventually made a police report.

Investigations revealed that she spent the stolen money on illegal gambling websites and lost all of it.

Thus far, she has only returned S$3,000 to the clinic.

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