Indian national jailed in Singapore for failing to return money mistakenly transferred

On October 14, Periyasamy Mathiyazhagan pleaded guilty to misappropriating funds, admitting he used the money to pay off debts and send some to his family in India. He had worked for a plumbing and engineering firm from 2021 to 2022.

Singapore: A 47-year-old Indian national 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, despite knowing the money did not belong to him.

On October 14, Periyasamy Mathiyazhagan pleaded guilty to misappropriating the money and told the court that he had used the money to pay off his debts and remitted some of it to his family in India.

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Periyasamy worked for a plumbing and engineering firm from 2021 to 2022.

His legal woes started on April 6, 2023, when an administrator at the firm transferred the SGD 25,000 to his bank account, which she had thought was the company’s account.

Court documents referred to her (unnamed) as the complainant in the case.

State Prosecuting Officer (SPO) Lim Yeow Leong told the court the woman had taken a personal loan from the company and wanted to pay it off.

“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 SPO as saying.

The woman then told Periyasamy’s bank about the erroneous transfer 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 made a request for the cash to be returned.

But the letter was sent to the company instead as it was identified as Periyasamy’s last known address in the bank’s records.

On May 9 that year, it informed her by another letter that her request for the cash to be returned was unsuccessful.

She then lodged a police report on May 23.

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.

To date, the money has not been recovered, and he has made no restitution, according to the newspaper.