SINGAPORE — An interior designer who instructed three homeowners to make payments of more than S$20,000 for renovation works to his personal bank account instead of the firm’s was sentenced to 14 weeks’ jail on Friday (May 31). 

Lim Zi Ying, 31, pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal breach of trust, with another similar charge taken into consideration for sentencing.

His sentence was backdated to his date of arrest on July 6 last year. 

At the time of the offence, Lim was working as an interior designer at a firm called Interior Concepts located at 123 Owen Road.

Lim, who was hired by the firm in 2020, had been told to inform potential clients who intended to engage the company to make all payments to the company’s business account.

Sometime after Dec 14, 2022, a client, Mr Jason Lim, enquired about the progress of his renovation project.

Mr Odell Tan, a director at the firm, then discovered that the company had not received any payments from Mr Lim.

Upon further checks, it was ascertained that Mr Lim had been instructed by the accused to make a payment of S$9,095 for renovation works to his own personal bank account instead.

This happened on two occasions — once on Dec 10 for S$5,350, and another time on Dec 14 for S$3,745.

Court documents did not state what happened following this event and if any action was taken against Lim by the firm. 

On July 3, 2023, another client, Ms Koh Shi Hui, asked if the downpayment for her apartment renovations had been received by the company.

The firm’s other director Tan Jun Jie conducted a check and similarly discovered that Lim had instructed Ms Koh to transfer about S$4,788 to his personal bank account via PayNow. 

Court documents showed that Lim had on both occasions used the money to settle his gambling debts.

Three days after the client’s enquiry, Mr Seah Soon Lee, the firm’s manager, reported the matter to the police and Lim was arrested that same day.

To date, Lim has not made any restitution to the company.

LEVERAGED COMPANY’S CLIENTELE FOR OWN BENEFIT: JUDGE

State Prosecuting Officer Wilfred Dennis Philomin told the court on Friday that the amount involved in Lim’s case was substantial, but left the duration of the sentence to the court’s discretion.

Lim pleaded for the court’s leniency, asking for a chance to “turn over a new leaf”.

In meting out the sentence, District Judge Ow Yong Tuck said that the amount of harm caused in this case was “high” — amounting to over S$20,000, which included the amount in the charge that was taken into consideration. 

He added that Lim had carried out the offences over a period of time and leveraged the access of the company’s clientele for his own personal benefit.

For criminal breach of trust, Lim could have been jailed for up to seven years, fined, or both.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated that Lim Zi Ying was sentenced to 14 months’ jail. It should be 14 weeks. We are sorry for the error.