Ex-bank teller jailed nine months for unauthorised withdrawals

[KarJuaKoon]

Ex-bank teller jailed nine months for unauthorised withdrawals

Published on Jan 15, 2013

Siti Aisyah Mohd, was sentenced to 9 months' jail for making unauthorised withdrawals and contravening the Computer Misuse Act. -- ST PHOTO : WONG KWAI CHOW

By Khushwant Singh

Between August and December 2011, a bank assistant with the DBS HarbourFront branch made 18 unauthorised withdrawals totalling $5,040 from the bank account of a man she befriended through a social networking website.

Siti Aisyah Mohd, 25, was dismissed when her offences came to light in January last year and she was jailed for nine months on Tuesday for making the unauthorised withdrawals and contravening the Computer Misuse Act.

Court papers state that she got to know Mr Syed Muhammad Syed Abdul Rahman Alkaff, 25, in February 2011 and they had met several times but they stop contacting each other after three months. In August, she conducted a name search and found that he was a client of DBS bank. She took down his account and identity card numbers. Whenever she needed money, she would fill in his details in the withdrawal voucher and debit the amount from his bank account.

As withdrawals made at the bank's counters required a signature of the account holder, she would also forge Mr Syed Muhammad's signature after referring to the specimen signature stored in the bank's computer system. She used the money to pay her personal expenses.

 

[Sinkie]

Only 9 months?????????

This is the most obvious simple loophole which any cashier in need of desperate money can steal from dormant account holders or from those who rarely touched their accounts.

I feel a more stringent sentence will send a message across and also more importantly, the bank must have a way to prevent this stealing from happening again.