SINGAPORE, Dec 18 — After leaving her job as a veterinary nurse, Fahira Hanani Azmi Mahmud pocketed the key to her former workplace’s front door and then frequently returned to steal from the cash register.

The Malaysian woman would re-enter Singapore from her home country just to do this and managed to steal S$42,950 (RM130,800) in half a year before she was caught.

Yesterday, the 25-year-old was jailed three years and three months for her actions.

She pleaded guilty to one count of theft in dwelling and two charges of housebreaking to commit theft. Another similar charge was taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that Fahira worked for Animal Infirmary for just under two months last year, from March 10 to April 27. She was given a key to the veterinary clinic’s front door, and was told that the cash register key was kept in a drawer at the counter.

On April 27 last year, she told the clinic’s co-owner that her family had been involved in a car accident, so she was allowed to go on leave and return to Malaysia.

About a week later, Fahira again lied that her father had died from the accident. She then asked to resign from her job immediately, saying that she would return within two weeks to collect her belongings and return the front-door key.

On May 13 last year, she went back to the clinic to do what she said, but as she was about to leave, she remembered that the clinic co-owner’s practice was to bank in a portion of their sales proceeds and leave some money in the cash register.

Fahira retrieved the cash-register key from the drawer, took S$50, locked it back up and returned the key to its original position, before locking up the clinic and leaving.

She kept the front-door key, going back to steal cash of varying amounts on 21 occasions between June and December last year. After doing so, she would return to Malaysia within a day. 

She was captured on closed-circuit television footage taken from the clinic on some of these occasions.

She spent almost all of the stolen money on her personal expenses, including a holiday to South Korea. She also bought mobile phones, air tickets, clothes and furniture, and gave cash allowance to her parents.

She has not made any restitution so far.

In mitigation, her lawyer Jaesh Balachandran from Bishop Law Corporation told the court that she had found her job difficult to manage and was unable to cope with living away from home.

She had come to Singapore to support her family who lived in Kuala Lumpur, but eventually quit and was "afraid and ashamed” to tell her parents. She then rented a home in Johor Baru, travelling between there and Singapore.

She was genuinely remorseful and took full responsibility for her actions, the lawyer added. — TODAY