Image from The Straits Tims/ANN
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): A clinic assistant who replaced the payment QR code that patients scanned at the counter so that the money would go to her instead of the doctor has been sentenced to 14 months’ jail.
Amira Nur Hudah Mohamed, 28, pleaded guilty to an amalgamated charge of cheating on April 14.
In total, Amira cheated 509 victims of over $55,000 (RM185,000). Deputy Public Prosecutor Gabriel Lee said she gambled away the money on an unlicensed gambling website.
Amira has since made restitution of $3,000.
In January 2023, Amira changed her PayNow name to that of the doctor’s at the clinic to convince patients that payments were being made to the clinic.
Between January and March 2023, she provided 100 patients with her own PayNow number when they wanted to pay for their medical bill.
In April that year, she escalated her scheme. She replaced the payment QR code linked to the doctor’s bank account displayed on the clinic’s counter with one leading to her own bank account.
She did this at the start of her shift and returned the original payment QR code before she knocked off work. This is so that patients would not make payments directly to her bank account when she was not working at the clinic, said DPP Lee.
Amira cheated more than 400 patients via her scheme from April to June 2023.
Her acts came to light when a patient sent the doctor a screenshot of his payment. The doctor noticed that the payment was made to a bank account linked to a mobile number that was not his.
The doctor then reviewed the clinic’s CCTV footage, and a police report was filed.
Seeking a jail term of 14 to 16 months, DPP Lee said there was significant premeditation in Amira’s actions.
“The accused, through her act of swopping the payment QR code placed at the counter of the clinic where she worked, had engaged in criminal conduct that, if not stemmed, would undermine public confidence in the use of technology in settling financial transactions,” he said.
Those convicted of cheating can be jailed for up to 10 years and is liable to a fine. - The Straits Times/ANN
