The victim raised funds after pawning her gold bracelet and handed S$4,000 in cash to Rozita Mohamed Rosli (pictured) in July 2022. - Photo: ST file
SINGAPORE: An officer from the Insolvency and Public Trustee’s Office (IPTO) of the Ministry of Law (MinLaw) made an unauthorised search on her workplace computer system and found out her cycling buddy was a bankrupt.
Despite this, Rozita Mohamed Rosli went on to cheat the 46-year-old woman of S$4,000 by claiming that the money was for a so-called “top-up” which was purportedly required as part of a process to discharge herself from bankruptcy.
Rozita even suggested the victim borrow money from her brother-in-law when she said she did not have enough cash at the time.
The victim managed to raise the funds after pawning her gold bracelet and handed $4,000 in cash to Rozita in July 2022.
On Wednesday (Nov 13), the 42-year-old offender was sentenced to 15 months’ jail after she pleaded guilty to one count each of cheating and misusing a computer system.
Rozita, who has since returned the full amount to the victim, was an individual insolvency administrator at IPTO at the time of the offences.
Responding to queries from The Straits Times, MinLaw said Rozita was suspended on half-pay after it found out about the case in January 2023.
“While police investigations were ongoing, the officer was redeployed to a role with no access to bankruptcy or other sensitive information,” said its spokesperson, adding that MinLaw is initiating disciplinary proceedings against her after the conviction.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) June Ngian said the victim was declared a bankrupt in June 2017.
Under a certain scheme, she had to make monthly payments of $120 over five years for a total payment of $6,000.
Rozita got to know her in around February 2022 and the pair became cycling buddies soon after.
In May 2022, Rozita suspected the victim was a bankrupt and decided to find out more about it.
Rozita was at her workplace when she unlawfully used her computer to look for the victim’s information in an internal computer system. She then found out the victim was a bankrupt.
In June 2022, she called and told the victim that she knew about her bankruptcy.
They were with a group of friends later that month when Rozita asked the victim if they could speak in private. She then duped the victim into believing that a $4,000 top-up was required as part of a process to discharge herself from bankruptcy.
The DPP said: “The accused... told the victim that she spoke to the victim’s individual insolvency administrator... about the victim’s case and that the victim would need to stand-by an additional $4,000 in cash.
“The accused explained that the $6,000 repaid was insufficient and that an additional $4,000 would be required for her to be successfully discharged as a bankrupt if any of her creditors objected to her discharge.”
Rozita claimed the additional $4,000 was “part of a scheme for all bankruptcy cases”.
She told the victim that if her creditors objected to her being discharged from being a bankrupt, MinLaw would use the $4,000 as a “counter proposal” to help her become a discharged bankrupt.
Rozita also told her the $4,000 would be refunded in full if the creditors rejected the proposal.
The victim fell for the lies and handed her $4,000 in cash on July 10, 2022.
On Dec 13, 2022, the victim received an e-mail from MinLaw involving her certificate of discharge in bankruptcy. She asked Rozita for the refund but failed to receive the money.
The truth finally emerged when the victim called the MinLaw hotline and spoke to an attending officer about the matter.
She confronted Rozita who returned the $4,000 on Jan 5, 2023, and the police were alerted two months later.
Rozita’s bail was set at $15,000 on Nov 13 and she is expected to begin serving her sentence on Dec 4. - The Straits Times/ANN
