Woman forged company cheques worth over $366,000
To fuel her gambling addiction, an accounts executive forged 21 company cheques totalling more than $300,000. This is Tay Hui Ling's third brush with the law for similar offences - having been jailed twice before, in 2001 and 2008.
The 42-year-old was yesterday sentenced to seven years of corrective training, a prison regime for repeat offenders with no chance of remission for good behaviour.
She was employed by a real estate business. Tay had admitted to eight of 21 charges of forging OCBC Bank cheques purportedly issued by the company. The total amount involved in all the charges is $366,242.
The court heard that Tay, who joined the company in October 2015, was entrusted with a blank OCBC chequebook, so that she could issue cheques to its clients and creditors. Between Dec 1, 2015 and April 28 last year, she executed a scheme involving the blank cheques.
She would insert her name as payee, fill in the amount to be paid to her and fraudulently sign off as Mr Satinder Singh Garcha, the authorised signatory, director of the company. She then either deposited these cheques into her own bank account or encashed them and obtained cash directly from the bank.
Mr Garcha, who is also a well-known polo player, reported her to the police on May 5 last year.
The court heard that Tay had gambled away the money. The maximum penalty for forgery is 15 years' jail and a fine.
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