Roslie Mohd Yunos was sentenced to 11 weeks’ jail after pleading guilty to a charge of criminal breach of trust. - Photo: ST
SINGAPORE: A group of Bangladeshi workers who wanted to improve their employment prospects approached their company’s safety supervisor to facilitate their enrolment in training courses.
Though the company was not keen on sending its workers for such courses, the supervisor collected more than S$11,000 from some of the workers and used it to pay off his debts.
On Tuesday (Jan 7), Roslie Mohd Yunos, 56, was sentenced to 11 weeks’ jail after pleading guilty to a charge of criminal breach of trust.
Three other charges of cheating were taken into consideration in his sentencing.
Deputy Public Prosecutor David Menon said the group of around 30 Bangladeshi workers employed by Sinopec Fifth Construction had expressed their desire between October and November 2023 to enrol in training courses, upon the completion of the project they were working on at the time.
The workers approached Roslie, a Singaporean, whom they trusted due to his position in the company.
Roslie raised the workers’ request to the company’s management, but it was not receptive.
Despite this, Roslie prepared and circulated application forms for various courses among the workers, and told them that they had to pay $1,700 each to attend the safety training courses.
One of the workers collected over $11,000 on behalf of those who were interested to sign up, and gave the sum to Roslie, who used it to settle his debts.
After the workers found out that Sinopec did not approve their attendance of the training courses, Roslie agreed to return the money to the workers.
Initially, he could return only some of the money due to his financial difficulties, but eventually returned the full amount.
Court documents did not state how Roslie’s actions came to the attention of the authorities.
DPP Menon asked the court to sentence Rosli to between three and four months’ jail, highlighting the abuse of trust as well as the workers’ vulnerability.
“The victims were foreign workers who were desperate to develop their skills to improve their employability in Singapore. By virtue of their desperation, they were vulnerable to exploitation,” he said.
DPP Menon added that their vulnerability was compounded because of their statuses as migrants and might not have been in Singapore by the time Roslie’s offence was discovered.
“This factor warrants general deterrence, so that vulnerable foreign workers are protected from bad actors,” he said.
For committing criminal breach of trust, Roslie could have been jailed for up to seven years, fined, or both. - The Straits Times/ANN
