Woman pocketed S$89,000 paid by residents for condo fees, claims she was owed salary

SINGAPORE: A former senior property manager in charge of handling communications between condominium residents and Management Corporation Strata Titles (MCSTs) pocketed over S$89,000 in fees from residents.
Nurafezah Mohamed Rafe, 37, was sentenced to 10 months’ jail on Wednesday (Sep 18) for her crimes.
Her lawyer claimed that she had done so because she was owed her salary, and that she had also used the money to pay off vendors and other employees.
The Singaporean pleaded guilty to one count of criminal breach of trust by an employee, with another four charges involving another S$14,000 taken into consideration.
The court heard that Nurafezah was employed as a senior property manager at ALPS4 International, an agent hired by the management of condominiums to oversee maintenance and handle communications with residents.
Among the condos ALPS4 handled was Bella Vista, a condominium in Serangoon.
From October 2021 to February 2022, Nurafezah told multiple residents at Bella Vista that they owed money to the MCST for things like condo maintenance and renovation fees.
She instructed them to pay the sums to her own bank accounts instead of the MCST bank account.
A total of nine residents transferred S$89,362 to Nurafezah over about four months.
She misappropriated the money for her own personal expenses and has not made any restitution to date.
The prosecutor sought 11 to 13 months’ jail for Nurafezah, saying a significant sum had been misappropriated.
Nurafezah also has a conviction from 2011 for voluntarily causing hurt and cheating.
Defence lawyer Jonathan Wong from Tembusu Law sought nine months’ jail instead.
He said Nurafezah’s past offences happened 12 years ago, showing a “significant and I would say successful reformation” of his client.
Since then, Nurafezah has gotten married and “embarked on a career”.
The lawyer said only a portion of the S$89,000 was used for his client’s own expenses, in the form of “paying herself the salary she was owed by the company”.
“The remainder of this, which we estimate at S$60,000 plus, were used by her to disburse towards other people who were in arrears in terms of what the company was owing to them,” alleged Mr Wong.
“This included other colleagues in the company and other vendors and service providers.”
He said none of this excuses or entitles Nurafezah to have carried out her actions in question, but asked the judge to consider that this case was “quite different”.
He said his client has started a new career with her husband selling food from a small stall and was keen to rebuild her career and life.
In response, the prosecutor said the allegations about non-payment of her salary were not borne out by investigations.
Nurafezah was allowed to defer her jail term to Oct 2.