The epitome of chaotic good? Doing illegal stuff… to help others in need.
This Thai Robin Hood illegally redeemed free masks using other people’s NRIC numbers, so that she can redistribute them to the needy. Here’s what happened.
Exploited Position at Investment Company To Obtain NRIC Numbers For Face Mask Redemption
Pantila Pakamethanan, a Singapore permanent resident and Thai national, was working as a finance and relationship manager at Charted Investment Managers.
As a manager, she had access to the personal data of her clients, mainly to open and close bank accounts for them. However, she was definitely not authorised to use the data for her own purposes.
Under Temasek Foundation’s mask distribution initiative, each Singapore resident could redeem one reusable face mask by keying in your NRIC at vending machines.
In October 2020, Pantila used the NRIC numbers of her clients to obtain five masks from a vending machine in Ang Mo Kio. BTW, the masks are worth around $10 each, so she illegally redeemed $50 worth of masks.
The five NRIC numbers she used belonged to Japanese nationals who had PR status here, whom she thought won’t collect the masks for themselves.
Her strategy was pretty smart, but she still ended up getting exposed on 5 March 2021, after a police report was made by a client’s family member.
Fine Instead Of Jail Term Due To Her Charitable Motivations
Pantila said that she intended to take the masks to a third party, who would send the masks to needy seniors.
The masks were recovered by the police, as she hadn’t given the masks out yet at the time of the report.
On 25 February, Pantila was fined $7,000 after pleading guilty to one count of cheating and another count of illegally obtaining personal information. Two other similar charges were also taken into consideration for sentencing.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Sunil Nair told the court that for similar cases of illegal mask redemption, jail terms were imposed.
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However, as Pantila had charitable motivations, high fines could be an appropriate alternative. However, low fines shouldn’t be imposed, as there are many other ways to do social good without abusing her clients’ trust and disregarding the law.
If found guilty of cheating, she could have been jailed for up to three years, fined, or both.
For illegally obtaining personal information, she could have been jailed up to three years and suffered a $10,000 fine.
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