<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Accountant jailed for embezzling $544,600
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->AN ACCOUNTANT who had pocketed more than half a million dollars from his various employers since 2007 has been sent to prison.
Lim Seow Kok, 53, was sentenced on Thursday to 51/2 years for embezzling $544,600 from his 11 jobs, including a welfare home, to fund his gambling habit.
The father of two admitted to 74 counts of forgery and criminal breach of trust in a district court.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Andrew Tan asked for a deterrent sentence, as Lim had planned his offences carefully. His plan was to change employers frequently, working for short spells, before absconding with the money, the prosecutor pointed out.
District Judge Jasvender Kaur agreed that Lim had no qualms siphoning money from his employers, no matter who they were. His systematic crime spree saw him pocket $36,000 from the Hougang Care Centre in Buangkok View, where he was hired as a finance officer in January 2007.
The welfare organisation of the Singapore Anglican Community Services serves as a rehabilitation centre for psychiatric patients. When Lim failed to report for work on Feb 12, investigations showed that he had run off with the organisation's funds.
Although police were already looking for him, Lim then went to work for 10 more organisations, including Solid Resource Investments (SRI), Ssangyong Engineering & Construction, Geylang United Football Club and food-trading firm Xie Chun.
=> Talk cock and trying to cover up jiat liao bee lah! See how quickly they nail down CSJ and co. at their slightest move?
In February last year, he worked for five days at Xie Chun and forged 15 cheques before vanishing on Feb 13 with $119,000.
Then in April, he worked for two days as SRI's accounts and administrative executive and forged three cheques for a total of $38,000.
Due to operational procedures, police declined to provide a picture of Lim to Xie Chun's director Chung Suan Lim, 56, who wanted to use it to offer a reward for information leading to his whereabouts.
Police, however, had activated an alert for Lim's arrest since he fled his job at Hougang Care Centre in 2007.
In court, Lim denied he was a gambler. He then went on to say that he had sent money to his wife in the form of winning betting slips on football games amounting to $120,000.
When DPP Tan said Singapore Pools' records showed no one in Lim's family had claimed such large payouts, Lim said since his wife was a devout Christian, she might have not collected the winnings because they were 'ill-gotten'.
He added that his wife died early this year, and he was unsure of the whereabouts of his two sons.
KHUSHWANT SINGH
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->AN ACCOUNTANT who had pocketed more than half a million dollars from his various employers since 2007 has been sent to prison.
Lim Seow Kok, 53, was sentenced on Thursday to 51/2 years for embezzling $544,600 from his 11 jobs, including a welfare home, to fund his gambling habit.
The father of two admitted to 74 counts of forgery and criminal breach of trust in a district court.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Andrew Tan asked for a deterrent sentence, as Lim had planned his offences carefully. His plan was to change employers frequently, working for short spells, before absconding with the money, the prosecutor pointed out.
District Judge Jasvender Kaur agreed that Lim had no qualms siphoning money from his employers, no matter who they were. His systematic crime spree saw him pocket $36,000 from the Hougang Care Centre in Buangkok View, where he was hired as a finance officer in January 2007.
The welfare organisation of the Singapore Anglican Community Services serves as a rehabilitation centre for psychiatric patients. When Lim failed to report for work on Feb 12, investigations showed that he had run off with the organisation's funds.
Although police were already looking for him, Lim then went to work for 10 more organisations, including Solid Resource Investments (SRI), Ssangyong Engineering & Construction, Geylang United Football Club and food-trading firm Xie Chun.
=> Talk cock and trying to cover up jiat liao bee lah! See how quickly they nail down CSJ and co. at their slightest move?
In February last year, he worked for five days at Xie Chun and forged 15 cheques before vanishing on Feb 13 with $119,000.
Then in April, he worked for two days as SRI's accounts and administrative executive and forged three cheques for a total of $38,000.
Due to operational procedures, police declined to provide a picture of Lim to Xie Chun's director Chung Suan Lim, 56, who wanted to use it to offer a reward for information leading to his whereabouts.
Police, however, had activated an alert for Lim's arrest since he fled his job at Hougang Care Centre in 2007.
In court, Lim denied he was a gambler. He then went on to say that he had sent money to his wife in the form of winning betting slips on football games amounting to $120,000.
When DPP Tan said Singapore Pools' records showed no one in Lim's family had claimed such large payouts, Lim said since his wife was a devout Christian, she might have not collected the winnings because they were 'ill-gotten'.
He added that his wife died early this year, and he was unsure of the whereabouts of his two sons.
KHUSHWANT SINGH
