Air stewardess fined $7,500 for stealing, using colleague's credit card
An air stewardess who stole her colleague’s credit card and spent $1,145 on it was fined $7,500 on Monday (16 July).
Jocelyn Yee Poh Ying, 24, pleaded guilty in the State Courts to five charges of cheating, which amounted to a loss of $587 incurred by the victim. One charge of stealing the card and nine other charges of cheating were taken into consideration for Yee’s sentencing.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Jordon Li told the court that Yee was working on a Silkair flight from Kathmandu to Singapore on 30 October last year when she chanced upon an unattended handbag in the plane’s galley, an area used by flight attendants.
Yee stole $30 cash and a credit card issued to her colleague Kelly Yap, who was working on the same flight.
Using the stolen card, Yee purchased two bottles of perfume worth $160 from the Victoria’s Secret at Changi Airport’s Terminal 2, hair styling equipment worth $160 and about $267 worth of food and beverages at cafes and restaurants.
To avoid suspicion, Yee would also sometimes sign the charge slips as “Kelly” after making purchases on the stolen card.
Yee’s cheating was discovered on 5 November last year when Yap received a text message from Standard Chartered bank that a transaction worth $1,198 had just been made on her credit card at Club Baliza, a nightclub at Marina Square.
Yap immediately called the club and discovered that Yee had made the purchases. The club cancelled the transaction and cut up Yap’s credit card at her request.
Yap made a police report the following night stating that Yee had admitted to stealing her credit card.
DPP Li asked for at least a $7,500 fine, noting that Yee had repaid Yap the entire sum of money she had charged to Yap’s card.
Defense Counsel Doraraj Sinnappan asked for leniency as his client was in debt. Yee had borrowed $22,000 from a licensed moneylender to help her former boyfriend.
She also earns less now as a customer service officer than she did as a flight attendant, said the lawyer, who asked for no more than a $5,000 fine.
For cheating, Yee could have been jailed up to three years, fined, or both.
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