Managing agent employee, 62, embezzles S$79,190 from Serangoon residents' management fees to pay gambling debts

A managing agent for Matlock Residences, a landed property estate in Serangoon, was sentenced to 15 months in jail after misappropriating a total of S$79,190 from the management fees paid by the residents.

Richard Boey Pang Sim, 62, transferred the fees to his own bank account over 26 transactions between Jun. 22 and Dec. 1, 2023, according to court documents seen by Mothership.

He did so to pay his gambling debts, which had grown to about S$400,000 since he began gambling at Singapore casinos in 2017.

He was charged with one count of committing a breach of trust, and was sentenced on May 18.

Collected management fees

At the time of the offences, Boey was an employee of RB Property Management, which managed Matlock Residences.

He was receiving a salary of S$4,200 a month then.

He was in charge of the administration and secretarial affairs of the office, and his tasks included collecting management fees from the residents, and ensuring all expenses were approved by the management council members and paid promptly.

Given his duties, Boey was an authorised signatory of the bank account that residents deposited their management fees to every six months.

Transferred money to himself

Around January 2024, other staff at the management office noticed that Boey had not been sending invoices for expenses to them for approval.

After checking with the bank, they found out that money in the bank account was being misappropriated, and filed a police report.

Boey was arrested on Jan. 22, 2024.

Investigations later revealed that Boey transferred a total of S$79,190 from the account to himself intending to use the money to gamble in hopes of winning back what he lost to the casinos.

Between Jul. 17 and Nov. 21, 2023, while he was still embezzling money from his company, he also deposited S$4,470 that he won from gambling back to the company's bank account.

He has not made any further restitution.

Sentencing

The prosecution called for a sentence of a year and 10 months to two years in prison.

This was decided upon consideration that the embezzlement was committed multiple times over six months, that Boey paid some of it back, and that he has a previous criminal record for cheating and breach of trust.

In court, Boey's lawyer said that Boey's previous offence was in 1993, and asked for leniency and nine months in prison instead, Shin Min Daily News reported.