47-year-old Indian sentenced to jail for spending Rs 16 lakh mistakenly sent to his account in Singapore

Singapore: A 47-year-old Indian man has been sentenced to nine weeks jail by a Singapore court after he failed to return SGD 25,000 (Rs 16 lakh approximately) mistakenly transferred to his bank account.

The man identified as Periyasamy Mathiyazhagan, worked for plumbing and engineering firm, had received Rs 16 lakh from an unknown account and he spent some of the amount to pay off his debts and sent the rest to his family in India, despite knowing that the money wasn’t his.

The matter was presented at a court in Singapore recently where Periyasamy pleaded guilty to misappropriating the money.

As per sources, an administrator at a plumbing and engineering firm, where Mathiyazhagan worked availed a personal loan from the company and was repaying it. She mistakenly transferred the amount to Mathiyazhagan’s bank account, believing it to be the company’s account.

“After making the erroneous transfer, the complainant was informed by (a director at the firm) on the same day that the account did not belong to the company, and the company did not receive the cash,” The Straits Times quoted the State Prosecuting Officer (SPO) as saying.

The woman then informed Periyasamy’s bank about the error in transferring the money and sought its help to recover the money.

On April 10, 2023, the bank sent a letter addressed to him, stating that the woman had applied for money to be returned. The letter, however, was sent to the company instead as it was identified as Periyasamy’s last known address in the bank’s records.

On May 9, the bank informed her that her request for the cash to be returned was turned down and on May 23, she filed a complaint with the police, The Straits Times reported.

Investigations revealed that Periyasamy discovered earlier that month that the money had been deposited into his bank account.

The SPO said that the offender was not expecting to receive such a large sum of cash and knew that it did not belong to him.

Despite this, he transferred the SGD 25,000 to another bank account over four separate transactions on May 11 and 12.

Some time at the end of the month, administrative staff at the company noticed that the bank’s letter addressed to Periyasamy had been sent to the firm instead. The firm’s director called him to the firm, handed him the letter, and asked him to return the SGD 25,000.

Periyasamy replied that he had used up the amount to pay off his debts.

In a police interview in November 2023, he told officers that he had also remitted a portion of the money to his family in India. He requested for more time to return the cash to the woman and proposed a monthly repayment of SGD 1,500.

No money has been recovered so far.

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