Man who was fired by operator of iJooz later stole from its vending machines
He was fired by an operator of an orange juice vending machine. Instead of moving on, Lee Zhi Hao decided to squeeze several machines dry of cash in order to pay off his gaming debts.
The 28-year-old Malaysian was a driver with Fruits Vending, which operates the iJooz brand of orange juice vending machines in Singapore. Lee’s tasks included topping up oranges, cleaning up the machines and collecting the income from the machine sales.
Lee pleaded guilty to three counts of theft and was jailed nine weeks on Monday (8 April). Another five counts of a similar nature were taken into consideration for sentencing.
Lee was fired on 13 December last year due to poor performance. While packing his belongings at the company’s hostel, he found a key to unlock the part of the machines which contained the money.
On 24 February this year, wearing a pair of black pants, a red polo T-shirt, a black cap and surgical mask, Lee used the key to steal from the iJooz vending machine outside Aqueen Hotel at Jalan Besar at night.
Lee later stole from the brand’s two vending machines at Fortune Centre and Sunshine Plaza within about half an hour.
In total, he stole $2,354 from eight machines in the same area.
On 25 February, Fruits Vending’s accountant found that the money collected from the vending machine in Fortune Centre had a shortfall of $644 in cash.
The operations manager viewed CCTV footage and saw Lee committing the offences. He lodged a police report on 1 March and Lee was arrested on 20 March.
In mitigation, Lee, who was not represented, asked for a chance to turn over a new leaf and pleaded for leniency.
For theft, Lee could have been jailed three years and/or fined on each count.
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