Nine weeks in jail for man who failed to repay $25,000 wrongly deposited into his bank account

SINGAPORE – A man has been sentenced to nine weeks in jail after he failed to return $25,000 that was accidentally transferred to his bank account despite knowing the money was not his.

He said he used the money to pay off his debts and transfer some of it to his family in India.

On October 14, Periyasamy Mathiyazhagan, a 47-year-old Indian national, pleaded guilty to embezzling the money.

From 2021 to 2022 he worked at a plumbing and engineering firm.

His legal troubles began on April 6, 2023, when a company administrator transferred the $25,000 to his bank account, which she believed was the company’s account.

Court documents named her as a complainant in the case.

State Public Prosecutor (SPO) Lim Yeow Leong told the court that the woman had taken out a personal loan from the company and wanted to pay it off.

“After making the erroneous transfer, the complainant was informed on the same day by (a director of the company) that the account did not belong to the company and that the company had not received the money,” the SPO said.

The woman then told Periyasamy’s bank about the erroneous transfer and sought help to get the money back.

On April 10, 2023, the bank sent a letter to him stating that the woman had requested the return of the cash.

But the letter was sent to the company instead because it was identified in the bank’s records as Periyasamy’s last known address.

On May 9 of that year, she informed her in another letter that her request for the return of the money had not been successful.

She then reported the incident to the police on May 23.

Investigation revealed that Periyasamy discovered the money had been deposited into his bank account earlier that month.

The SPO said the perpetrator did not expect to receive such a large sum of cash and knew it was not his.

Despite this, he transferred the $25,000 to another bank account in four separate transactions on May 11 and 12.

Sometime toward the end of the month, the company’s administrative staff noticed that the bank’s letter to Periyasamy had been sent to the company instead.

The company president called him into the company, handed him the letter and asked him to return the $25,000.

Periyasamy replied that he had used up the amount to pay off his debts.

In a police interview in November 2023, he told officers that he had also transferred some of the money to his family in India.

He asked for more time to return the money to the woman and proposed a monthly payment of $1,500.

To date, the money has not been recovered and no refund has been issued.