W
Wei Yan
Guest
Dec 23, 2010
JAILED FOR BREACH OF TRUST
Embezzling Woffles Wu
By Khushwant Singh
A combination photo shows Teresa Wong Chui Sheung (left) and Dr Woffles Wu
PHOTOS: SPF, SHIN MIN
FOR more than four years, Teresa Wong Chui Sheung, 49, would pocket money paid by clients of Woffles Wu Aesthetic and Laser Centre.
But the 49-year-old was on Thursday, jailed a year and three months for committing criminal breach of trust of $111,713 between March 2004 and October 2008.
When she pleaded guilty on Dec 9, the district court heard that she joined the clinic as a receptionist cum cashier in October 2000.
Pleading for a jail term of a year, defence counsel A.P. Thirumurthy said that Wong was suffering from kidney ailments and psychiatric illness.
She had moved to Singapore from Hong Kong in 1996 with her two children and joined the Singapore General Hospital as an assistant nurse.
When Dr Wu left SGH in 2000 for private practice, she went to work for him.
Mr Thirumurthy said that she only started misappropriating money as she found it difficult to pay for family expenses and the educational fees for her son, now 14.
The divorcee has an elder daughter residing in Hong Kong.
Arguing for a stiffer sentence, Deputy Public Prosecutor Adrian Ooi pointed out that no restitution has been made.
In passing sentence, District Judge Jill Tan said that the court was unable to ignore the large amount Wang had misappropriated and that the offences continued for a long period of time.
The jail term was backdated to Sept 21, the day she was remanded.
