SINGAPORE – While working as a group financial controller for his company, a man siphoned $35,500 from the firm’s coffers over 1½ years.

Lim Lei Ming, 39, did so by writing cheques authorising payments from the company to his and his family members’ bank accounts.

On Dec 3, Lim was sentenced to six months’ and two weeks’ jail after he pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal breach of trust and one count of falsification of accounts.

Five other charges of the same nature and one charge of forgery were taken into consideration for the Malaysian national’s sentencing.

The court heard that from August 2018, Lim started working as a group financial controller at Altus Oil & Gas Services, which handles freight and logistic arrangements for oil and gas companies in South-east Asia.

Lim’s job scope included overseeing the firm’s cash flow and accounts, and ensuring that payments were made to its vendors.

He had full access to the company’s electronic accounting system and was one of the authorised signatories for transactions involving its corporate bank account.

At the time, the firm had a practice of maintaining a certain number of cheques pre-signed by another signatory, the general manager of Altus, to facilitate making payments at short notice.

From March 2019 to September 2020, Lim began signing off on cheques authorising payments to be made from Altus’ corporate bank account to accounts belonging to his wife, brother-in-law and himself.

He would then cash the cheques and withdraw the money to use for his personal expenses.

To conceal his tracks, Lim would then access Altus’ electronic accounting system and alter the records to falsely indicate that the withdrawn money was used for the firm’s expenses.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Yee Jia Rong said that Lim misappropriated a total of $35,500 and has mad...