Once bitten, twice shy?
This was definitely not the case for Dr Smile Dental Clinic, as the dentist gave a dental assistant a second chance after she was caught pocketing money—only for her to continue doing it again.
Begged for a Second Chance After Being Caught Pocketing $44,861 from Patients
The 24-year-old dental assistant, Malaysian Charlene Ashby Clay, worked at Dr Smile Dental Clinic at Block 443, Clementi Avenue 3.
Clay began pocketing money from the clinic as early as October 2018. She deposited cash payments from patients into her personal bank account, while making it seem like the patient has made payment by NETS or credit cards which couldn’t be immediately verified.
In March 2019, after she had embezzled a total of $44,861, her crime was exposed when the clinic’s accountant informed the dentist that the amount received by the clinic did not tally with the system logs.
After admitting that she embezzled the money, she begged the dentist to not cancel her work permit and asked to continue to work there. The dentist gave her a second chance, deducting from her monthly salary until the embezzled money was repaid to the clinic in full.
Found New Method; Embezzlement Amounted to $158,400
Perhaps she was emboldened by her successful getaway? Apart from data alteration, she decided to convince patients to transfer payments for dental packages in full to her personal account using PayNow.
If a clinic assistant offered me shady discounts, the cheapo in me would 100% take it up and feel smug about getting a good deal, so she truly knew her patients well.
To cover her tracks, Clay would transfer small sums of money to the clinic’s bank account, to appear as the patients’ payments whenever they used their packages at the clinic.
Her crime was exposed on 30 March 2020. A patient told the dentist she had already paid $3,700 in full for her braces when the dentist told her to pay $200 at the counter after a braces maintenance procedure.
This aroused suspicion as the clinic charged the patients after each visit instead of collecting lump-sum payments, thus causing the dentist to confront Clay.
A feeling of déjà vu must have overwhelmed the dentist when she confessed to her crimes again…
A High Price to Pay
Clay was sentenced to jail for one year and six weeks on Tuesday (4 January), pleading guilty to two charges of criminal breach of trust as a servant and one charge of transferring benefits from criminal conduct.
For criminal breach of trust by a servant, Clay could have been jailed up to 15 years and fined. And for transferring benefits from criminal conduct, she could have been jailed up to 10 years, fined up to S$500,000, or both.
Moral of the story? Maybe don’t continue hiring someone who has embezzled from you. Or, if you’re a kind and generous person, maybe try checking your accounts more often.
Better be safe than sorry, right?
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