When you’re dealing with large amounts of money on a daily basis as part of your job, it’s tempting to just keep all those cash for yourself.
For 36-year-old former finance manager Smita Salil Mhatre however, she carried out exactly that when she misappropriated about $470,000 from her employer progressively over six years.
The permanent resident has since been sentenced to jail for 46 months, The Straits Times reports, after she pleaded guilty to three of six charges of criminal breach of trust as a servant.
She had joined market research company The Research Pacific Group back in 2006, working her way up from an accounts and administrative executive to finance manager.
Her responsibilities involved managed the company’s bank accounts and fund transfers as well as safeguarding the company’s security dongles for their HSBC bank accounts.
As she had the security dongle, she would transfer money from the company’s HSBC accounts to her personal POSB bank account. The sums she misappropriated between 2011 and May 2013 were reportedly $97,802, $98,689, $48,500.
Restitution was made after she was caught — but it was only $277,254 out of the $470,000.
