SINGAPORE: An IT help desk engineer stole 49 Apple devices from the school where he worked and sold them for profit, making S$13,200 (US$9,700) in total.
Lim Poh Heng Andrew, 29, was sentenced to nine months’ jail and fined S$1,200 on Monday (Feb 10).
He pleaded guilty to a single amalgamated charge of criminal breach of trust.
The court heard that Lim had been working at Stamford American International School’s IT help desk since June 2023.
His job was to help the school’s roughly 3,250 students and 660 staff with IT issues, and manage the inventory for the school’s electronic devices.
The school kept devices that students and staff could loan in its IT offices. Each device had a serial number that was tagged to a student or staff member when it was loaned out.
As part of his job, Lim could allocate devices to students and staff through a procedure that required two-factor authentication on his mobile phone or email.
In November 2023, Lim logged into the school’s computer system and allocated a MacBook Air laptop to himself.
All the devices used an Apple School Manager server for the school to restrict the features available on the devices.
Lim therefore reprogrammed the laptop by removing it from the school’s server, restoring its full functionality.
After using the laptop himself, he sold it on Carousell.
Over four months until February 2024, Lim misappropriated a total of 13 MacBook Air laptops and 33 iPads. The 46 devices were valued at S$31,772 in total.
He only retrieved a few devices at a time so his actions would go undetected, and also took any chargers and charging cables that were set aside with the devices.
He sold 39 of the stolen devices at the rate of S$600 to S$800 for a MacBook Air, and S$100 to S$200 for an iPad.
In March 2024, the school’s managing director of operations discovered another employee had stolen brand-new laptops.
Subsequently, to reduce the risk of such thefts reoccurring, the school restricted access to the system for allocating loaned devices to three people in the IT department.
Lim was among the three people who retained access.
Around April 2024, the head of the IT department noticed that some electronic devices were unaccounted for, and asked Lim about two of the devices.
Lim claimed that the two devices in question had been scrapped.
However, as the standard operating procedures for scrapping devices had not been followed, the department head and managing director investigated further.
They discovered that 46 devices could not be accounted for, as these were not released to staff or students, but were also not in the school’s IT offices.
When Lim was confronted, he admitted to the offences. Police also searched his home and seized stolen devices that he had not sold.
The school suffered a total loss of S$25,622. Lim made a profit of S$13,200. After the offences came to light, he made partial restitution of S$12,000 to the school.
The prosecutor argued for nine to 10 months’ jail, and a S$1,200 fine to disgorge the balance of the illegal profits Lim made that were not restituted.
In his mitigation, Lim, who did not have a lawyer, apologised to his former colleagues and employer for his misconduct.
“I did this crime in hopes of at least having a better future, but my greed and temptation clouded my judgment and I made a very great mistake,” he said.
The judge said that Lim’s partial restitution amounted to about 40 per cent of the total loss suffered by the school.
He also noted that Lim pleaded guilty early, cooperated with investigations, and had no prior convictions.
The punishment for criminal breach of trust is up to 15 years in jail and a fine. As Lim’s charge was amalgamated, he could have been given up to two times the maximum penalty.
