Over an 18-month period, a clerk working at the lower courts in Ipoh appeared to be a role model for civil servants to emulate as she never took lunch breaks or annual leave.
However, when auditors arrived to check the courts' books last year, the real reason for the 35-year-old woman's commitment and diligence was uncovered.
She had embezzled more than RM1.5 million of the court's money after she had been entrusted with collecting fines for minor offences and misdemeanours.
The auditors lodged a police report over the missing money and the clerk has been suspended from duties pending investigations.
According to police, the clerk was a quiet and diligent worker, who never missed a day's work between April 2012 and September 2013.
Her colleagues told police that the clerk never left her desk, not even during lunch breaks and appeared to be extremely hardworking.
The clerk's task was to collect money from the offenders who had been found guilty by the court and fined.
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Although, the fines were not substantial the total was quite large at the end of the day.
The Malaysian Insider was told that the woman would take between RM1,000 and RM2,000 a day.
She exploited a “weakness” in the system to make the necessary adjustments in the court's computer database so that the embezzled figures would not turn up in the accounts.
The clerk managed to hide the illicit activities until late last year when auditors arrived at the courts to look through the books.
The Malaysian Insider understands that police have already interviewed the clerk and have recorded her statement.
However, police were unsuccessful in recovering the stolen monies.
Federal Commercial Crimes Investigation Department acting director Datuk Tajuddin Md Isa confirmed the case. – February 3, 2014.
