What happens if you realise your ex-company kept paying you even though you’ve left them for some time?
Call up the HR and ask them to stop giving you money? Or just use them since it’s in your bank account anyway?
Unfortunately for a former healthcare assistant at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), she decided to go for the latter.
Let’s just say things didn’t end too well for her.
Woman Jailed 4 Months After Hospital Paid Her for a Year Even When She Wasn’t Working There
On 27 Jan 2021, 25-year-old Nurul Atiqah Kamsari was sentenced to four months’ jail for using money that her former workplace had wrongly credited to her as salary for over a year.
Despite disappearing from the hospital without reason, Nurul continued receiving monthly payments from Aug 2018 to Dec 2019, the total of which amounts to over $32,000.
She took out $22,000 in cash between Jan and Dec 2019.
In December 2020, Nurul pleaded guilty to one count of dishonest concealment of property involving more than $22,000 and a cheating charge.
A second cheating charge, as well as one count of dishonest concealment of property for the remaining amount, was taken into consideration during sentencing.
For dishonest concealment of property, she could’ve been jailed for up to three years and fined.
What Happened
TTSH appointed Nurul as a healthcare assistant on 20 March 2017.
She earned $1,630 a month and was also entitled to shift allowance.
In 2018, Nurul failed to report to work on 16 and 17 August. She did not notify any of her colleagues or superiors about her absence from work, nor gave any reasons for it.
There was also no prior leave approved by her supervisor.
In line with the terms and conditions of the woman’s employment with TTSH, she was deemed to have voluntarily terminated her service, as she failed to report for work for more than two consecutive days without informing her immediate supervisor.
So, Nurul’s last day was supposed to be on 17 Aug 2018.
“Supposed” is the operative word here.
Bank Account Number Remained in Payroll System
While Nurul no longer worked at the hospital, her details remained in the hospital’s human resource system. According to the latest ST report, it’s because the hospital’s system was not updated.
Consequently, her bank account number also erroneously remained in the payroll system.
So, Nurul achieved what many of us dream of at night: to get paid for doing absolutely nothing.
Caught
You’d think that an excess $32,000 would be enough for someone.
But even though she received over $30k that she was not entitled to, Nurul lied during a consultation at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital that she was still working at TTSH so she could utilise her non-existent staff medical benefits.
All this, just for a medical bill of $29.60 which was credited to TTSH.
A TTSH senior executive alerted the police in January this year, and Nurul had nowhere to hide.
Featured Image: Miguel Vidal / Shutterstock.com
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