SINGAPORE — She could not afford school fees for her own son, so a 27-year-old childcare teacher pocketed more than S$2,400 she collected from parents as school and administrative fees.

For her actions, Siti Naqiah Ismail was sentenced to four weeks’ jail on Friday (July 5) after pleading guilty to one count of criminal breach of trust by a servant.

The court heard that the Singaporean started working as a childcare lead teacher at the Upper Serangoon View branch of Edufarm Learning Centre in Hougang in January 2018.

In the earlier half of that year, she would submit the fees collected to Edufarm’s headquarters in Boon Lay sometime in the first week of every month.

But for monies collected between May and June last year, Siti Naqiah did not submit them in the first week of June since it was the school holidays and the centre’s headquarters was closed. She was instructed to hold onto the money until June 25.

But instead of safekeeping it, she used the money — made up of S$1,925 in school fees, and S$480 in administrative fees that parents of new students had to pay — to pay for personal expenses and her son’s school fees, Deputy Public Prosecutor Bjorn Tan told the court.

When the June 25 deadline came, Siti Naqiah went on medical leave and subsequently stopped reporting for work, he added. 

Her absence prompted Edufarm’s operation manager, Ms Seetha Sathiavellu, 31, to lodge a police report at Jurong East Neighbourhood Police Centre on July 18, 2018.

Siti Naqiah will start serving her sentence on July 29. She has repaid the centre S$600 to date.

For an offence of criminal breach of trust by a servant, she could have been jailed for up to 15 years and fined.