SINGAPORE — When an Indonesian traveller dropped her S$20,000 watch during security screening at Changi Airport before boarding her flight to Jakarta, the security officer who found it handed it to a Certis Cisco supervisor, Nurshaba Samsi.

Instead of reporting the found item, Nurshaba pocketed it and took it home.

On Friday (April 5), the 34 year old was sentenced to four weeks' jail after pleading guilty to stealing the Franck Muller watch.

The court heard that Nurshaba was supervising the pre-boarding security screening at Changi Airport’s Terminal 3 in the afternoon of Aug 25, 2018 when the theft occurred.

After the screening, the victim collected her belongings, not realising that she had left her watch behind.

She only noticed she had lost it while she was en route to her destination. She later contacted Changi Airport's lost and found department when she reached Jakarta.

As the victim was unable to resolve the loss with the department, she lodged a police report on Sept 1.

Investigations showed that the watch had dropped onto the floor during the security screening. It was later picked up by one of Nurshaba’s security officers, who notified her after placing the watch on top of a metal rubbish bin.

During the investigation, Nurshaba stated that the usual practice when dealing with lost items is to log them in an electronic flight operation form before handing the items to the information counter.

She claimed that this procedure was inconvenient, and she would just hand over items found to the counter directly.

In this case, she did neither. When her shift was over, Nurshaba took the watch home.

The court also heard that Nurshaba later thought that the watch was broken. Not knowing the value it held, she decided to throw it away. The watch was never recovered.

Nurshaba repaid the victim the full value of the watch on Feb 27 this year, though it required her to dip into her late mother’s inheritance.

In pushing for Nurshaba’s sentence, the prosecution said that security officers working at the airport are in a special position as travellers look to them to safeguard their belongings.

“Such a system is meaningless if security officers do not adhere to it but take (the items) home,” said deputy public prosecutor Chong Yun Ling.

She added that what Nurshaba did not only “tarnished the reputation” of her security agency, but it also impacted the reputation of Singapore as a safe haven for travellers.