Singapore court sentences Indian man to jail for spending Rs 16 lakh deposited to his account by mistake

After the transfer, the woman was informed by a company director that the account was not associated with the firm and that they did not receive the money. The Straits Times quoted the State Prosecuting Officer (SPO) as saying: “After making the erroneous transfer, the complainant was informed by (a director at the firm) on the same day that the account did not belong to the company, and the company did not receive the cash.”

Realising the mistake, the woman promptly contacted Mathiyazhagan’s bank for assistance in retrieving the fund. Four days later, the bank sent a letter to his last known address, which was also the company’s address, alerting him about what happened and requesting him to return the sum.

A month after that, the bank told the woman that Mathiyazhagan refused to give the money back, following which she filed a police complaint. Investigations showed that Mathiyazhagan knew about the error and moved the money to another account in May 2023.

Mathiyazhagan, in May, admitted to the company’s director that he used the money to pay off his debts. When he spoke to the police in November 2023, he said he had used the money for his debts and sent some to his family in India. Mathiyazhagan requested for more time to repay the woman and suggested a monthly payment plan of SGD 1,500 (about Rs 96,000), but so far, no money has been recovered from him.

The news went viral after a Redditor posted about it.

Indian Jailed In Singapore For Not Returning Money Mistakenly Sent To Him
byu/Professional-Spare43 inindia

One user wrote, “How dumb was this guy? He thought the money wouldn’t be tracked to him?” Another user wrote, “Honesty is not about doing the right thing when everyone’s looking, it’s about doing the right thing when no one’s looking.”