SINGAPORE – An officer from the Ministry of Law’s (MinLaw) Insolvency and Public Trustee Office (IPTO) conducted an unauthorized search of his workplace computer system and revealed that his cycling mate was bankrupt.

Despite this, Rozita Mohamed Rosli continued to defraud the 46-year-old woman of $4,000, claiming the money was for so-called “completion” purposes that were allegedly required as part of the process to save herself from bankruptcy.

Rozita even suggested the victim borrow money from his brother-in-law when he said he didn’t have enough money at the time.

The victim managed to raise the money after pawning her gold bracelet and gave Rozita $4,000 in cash in July 2022.

On November 13, the 42-year-old criminal was sentenced to 15 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count each of cheating and misusing a computer system.

Rozita, who has since returned the full amount to the victim, was a personal insolvency administrator at IPTO at the time of the crimes.

Responding to questions from The Straits Times, MinLaw said it learned of Rozita’s case in January 2023.

The Ministry was informed in March 2024 that Rozita would be charged in court for crimes uncovered during police investigations. He was later suspended on half pay in accordance with civil service rules.

“While police investigations are ongoing, the officer has been reassigned to a role without access to insolvency or other sensitive information,” his spokesman said, adding that MinLaw had initiated disciplinary proceedings against him following the conviction.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) June Ngian said the victim was declared bankrupt in June 2017.

According to a specific schedule, he was required to make monthly payments of $120 for five years, totaling $6,000.

Rozita recognized him around February 2022 and the pair soon became cycling buddies.

In May 2022, Rozita suspected that the victim was bankrupt and decided to find out more about it.

Rozita was at work when he illegally used his computer to search for the victim’s information on an internal computer system. He later learned that the victim was bankrupt.

In June 2022, he called the victim and said that he knew about his bankruptcy.

Later that month, Rozita was with a group of friends when she asked the victim if they could talk privately. He then deceived the victim into believing that an additional $4,000 was needed as part of the process to save him from bankruptcy.