SINGAPORE - A man who misappropriated over $1 million by using pre-signed blank cheques and payment vouchers that were entrusted to him was sentenced to five years and three months’ jail on Friday.

Peter Nah Kim Chye, 58, committed the offences when he was a secretary at a printing company.

He had also forged his qualifications to apply for a job at another printing company.

In December 2022, Nah pleaded guilty to multiple charges including criminal breach of trust and cheating. Another seven charges of criminal breach of trust and forgery were considered in sentencing.

Nah was employed as a secretary at printing company I Dzzign from March 2010 to October 2016, and also acted as a company director.

His tasks included ensuring suppliers and vendors were paid promptly. He was also tasked with overseeing the firm’s accounting records and bookkeeping.

He was hence entrusted with blank cheques, blank payment vouchers and blank telegraphic transfer forms pre-signed by the company director, who was the sole signatory of the company’s OCBC bank account.

From October 2010 to November 2014, Nah forged payment vouchers and invoices to misappropriate over $1 million from I Dzzign.

His offences came to light only after he resigned from the firm in 2016 and the company director checked the accounts. She later lodged a police report.

The director also recalled that Nah had claimed to possess a Singapore-Cambridge GCE O-level certificate when he applied for a job at the firm.

She checked with the Ministry of Education, which later confirmed that it had no record of Nah sitting any Singapore-Cambridge GCE O-level examination.

Investigations revealed that in 2009, Nah had applied for a job with another printing company, Flo-Prints and Packs, using forged qualifications.

In that application, he claimed to have a Singapore-Cambridge GCE O-level certificate, a diploma in marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and a certificate in marketing from “Thames Business Management School”.

He had forged his documents from other people’s certificates.

He photocopied the originals, covered the names on the duplicates by pasting pieces of white paper over them, and then scanned the duplicates.

He then digitally edited the documents to include his name.

Flo-Prints and Packs offered him a job because of these forged documents.