SINGAPORE, Sept 23 — A condominium manager was tasked to collect maintenance fees and sinking funds from the residents of Harvest Mansions on Havelock Road, but pocketed close to S$20,000 over more than four years instead.
He used the money to pay licensed moneylenders and for his personal expenses, the court heard today.
Rumi Bin Abdul Rahim, 47, who was working for facilities management firm C&W Services, pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal breach of trust and was sentenced to 14 weeks’ imprisonment.
District Judge Edgar Foo noted that Rumi had tried to cover up the act by doctoring the condominium’s accounts, which allowed him to keep up the ruse for years.
“These are clear aggravating factors which I cannot discount,” he said.
Rumi’s lawyer Daniel Atticus Xu had urged the court to consider a 10-week jail term, noting that the defendant has a newborn daughter who is only two months old.
Xu had added that Rumi now works as a healthcare attendant at a hospital and will not be able to be re-employed there after being released from prison even though he has been “coping well” on the job.
Facts of the case
Court documents stated Rumi misappropriated the funds from 2013 to 2018.
The matter was not discovered until the condominium held an annual general meeting on May 25, 2018, when someone raised a concern about the authenticity of certain financial reports.
C&W started an internal investigation upon receiving this feedback, and found that copies of the financial report which were presented at the meeting had been tampered with.
Rumi became the prime suspect as he was the only one who had access to the financial reports, so C&W sacked him in June 2018.
But it was not until a new property manager had replaced him did the firm realise that S$19,962 was missing.
The new manager confronted a resident of the condominium, thinking that she owed the outstanding sum, but she said she had been passing the cash to Rumi.
Rumi has since made full restitution.
For each charge of criminal breach of trust, he could have been jailed up to seven years, fined, or both. ― TODAY
