Ex-HSBC manager, 52, jailed for taking about S$200,000 from client's account after she assumed client had forgotten about it

A former service manager, 52, at HSBC was sentenced to 42 months, or three years and six months, in prison for forging documents and transferring close to S$200,000 from a client's account into her own.

The Philippines national, Ward Dulce Plaza, also sent around S$123,000 of the money she misappropriated back home to help with her family's daily and medical expenses.

The client had apparently forgotten that she still had money in her HSBC account.

Client asked for email to be taken off bank records

According to court documents, in her role as service manager, Plaza handled international customers residing outside of Singapore.

She also assisted the relationship manager in contacting customers to inform them of the status of their deposits and receive instructions on how to deal with their money.

Sometime on Jan. 4, 2021, Ward was assigned as the service manager to the victim, a Chinese national.

This lasted until April 2023.

During the Covid-19 crisis, Ward started struggling with her finances as her family were financially dependent on her.

Sometime in 2021, Ward received a request from HSBC's call centre informing her that the victim wished for her email record to be deleted from HSBC's database as she no longer has an account with the bank.

Ward later discovered that the victim still had over US$100,000 (S$128,652) in her account.

She then tried multiple times to contact the victim, but to no avail.

Ward then assumed that the victim thought she no longer had money with the bank and made plans to transfer the money to her personal account.

Forged documents to gain access

Around Aug. 23, 2021, Ward forged an "Update of Particulars" form in the victim's name, providing her own address, contact number and email address.

She also forged a form requesting a debit card and internet banking for the victim's account, using the victim's signature from a form found in the bank's archives.

She submitted this form and later shredded it using the bank's document shredder.

After receiving the debit card and gaining internet banking access to the victim's account, Ward went on to make several transfers totalling S$190,925 from the victim's bank account to her own.

Ward then made 28 transfers between September 2021 and March 2022, amounting to S$123,078.49, to her family in the Philippines for their daily and medical expenses.

She also used the remaining money to pay for her outstanding credit card bills in Singapore and her personal expenses.

Having decided to close the victim's account in late September 2021, Ward digitally filled out an account closure form.

On Apr. 16, 2025, the victim's child called the police and reported that their parents' signatures had been forged during the Covid-19 period.

Prosecution sought 34 to 36 months' jail

Ward faced nine charges in total for forgery, cheating and offences under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes Act.

She pleaded guilty to three of the charges, and the rest of the charges were taken into consideration during sentencing, Lianhe Zaobao reported.

In court, the prosecution pointed out that Ward had used her knowledge of the bank's administrative processes to take advantage of the fact that the victim had forgotten about her money.

He also pointed out that Ward was only found out after three years and did not make any restitution to the victim.

The prosecution sought a global sentence of between 41 and 44 months' imprisonment for Ward.

In mitigation, Ward's lawyer argued that Ward suffered a lapse in judgment as her family was in urgent need of money.

The lawyer also pointed out that Ward was cooperative during the investigation and chose to stay in remand so as not to delay the judicial process.

Her lawyer also pointed out that Ward had no prior convictions and sought leniency.

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