A 34-year-old operation manager was sentenced to 11 months of imprisonment on Friday, as he was found guilty of cheating SBS Transit company after conspiring with a foreman of the bus depot.
The accused, Koh Dawei cheated the transport company of more than S$210,000 over three years after his 47-year-old accomplice, Ong Sang Fei helped him during the time of the offences. The accused was hired by Venda Engineering & Trading, which is an external vendor that provided maintenance and repair jobs for the company at Soon Lee Bus Depot.
Koh and Ong both set up another company called Azech Engineering. The plan was to perform ad hoc jobs. These jobs were usually done by Venda's technicians and involve a foreman obtain quotes from approved contractors. It also includes approvals from workshop manager to provide the job to a specific contractor.
Koh and his accomplice Ong conspired that the quotations and invoices would be issued by the name of their company Azech but the Venda's technicians would do the actual job. Both the involved men distributed the collected payment from SBS Transit between them. While Koh used to receive 17 percent, 83 percent used to be taken by Ong. Between 2013 and 2015, they received a total of S$66,610.50 in invoice payments on 20 different occasions.
During sentencing, the court also considered another 113 charges, which involved ad hoc jobs with invoice amounts, which was S$145,192.55.
While Koh was sentenced to 11 months of jail term, the by District Judge Ng Peng Hong on Friday, Ong has received one-year imprisonment in April 2018.
Reports stated that respective supervisors and employers of both the accused did not know about the criminal offence.
