The case concerns one Silitonga Andri Parulian, a 27-year-old tourist from Indonesia, who was traveling to Singapore for leisure. Silitonga was visiting Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands Casino when he found the vouchers, worth some $18,000 (S$24,000) and immediately decided to withdraw the amounts and head out.
According to investigators, the vouchers were dropped accidentally from a folder by Tham Wan Nyit, a manager in charge of slot machine operations at the casino. A total of eight tickets were dropped worth S$3,000 each.
The Indonesian man, stumbling upon them, decided to put them to good use instead, and bagged the net worth of the tickets right away. His luck has run out, however, as he will now spend four months in jail over failure to return the tickets and after he pled guilty to a single charge of dishonestly misappropriating money.
Although Silitonga had no intent in procuring the tickets, the court still found him guilty. He stumbled upon the vouchers by accident, as he was about to enter the Ruby Room to gamble when he saw the tickets on the floor and collected them. Investigators though claimed that the man made no attempt to return the tickets back to security.
Silitonga did not use the money and play. He cashed out the tickets and headed directly to Changi Airport where he wanted to buy a ticket to Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital. No flights were available, however, so he spent the night at the airport while contacting a friend to help him transfer S$2,000 into his Indonesian bank account.
Remitting the Money Back Home
The friend told him to just use a remittance service moving forward, and Silitonga started remitting the money back home, using various accounts – his own, his friend’s, and his girlfriend’s. However, at the venue things were agog. Tham became aware of the missing tickets and he notified policy who examined the CCTV footage and found out that Silitonga was indeed the person who had collected the money.
He was finally arrested at the airport prior to his departure. The man though has refused to return the S$17,000 he has remitted to various accounts and did not tell what he did with the rest of the money. He made no restitutions nor did he try to return the money. His only alleviating factor in his sentencing was the fact that he admitted guilt and thus received a lighter sentence.
On the whole, Silitonga dodged a bullet, as his sentence could have been much stiffer, leading to up to two years in prison and a fine. Then again, if he had agreed to return the money, he may have avoided some of the prison time he is now going to serve.