SINGAPORE — A 26-year-old woman who temporarily worked for ride-hailing firm Grab was fined S$5,000 on Wednesday (July 21) for misappropriating a Cartier watch worth about that amount.

Kaushalia Kathiravan was meant to repack lost-and-found property handed in to the Grab office. Instead, she pocketed the timepiece and lied that she could not find it.

The Singaporean pleaded guilty in a district court to one count of criminal breach of trust. She has since made full restitution.

The court heard that on July 1, 2019, Grab driver Tan King Way found a Cartier Tank Francaise watch valued at $5,150 in his vehicle.

The watch was in a pouch, which was placed in a paper bag bearing the Cartier logo. Mr Tan reported the loss and handed it over to the Grab found property office, located at 28 Sin Ming Lane.

On Aug 6 that year, Kaushalia and Ms Charmaine Ang, then a partner experience associate at Grab, were assigned to manage the office.

In particular, they were tasked to go through and repack any found items that had been left unclaimed for more than a month. 

The pair were sorting through items on a table when Kaushalia noticed the Cartier paper bag. She then took the watch, placing the pouch back into the bag without Ms Ang noticing.

A few minutes later, at about 5.08pm, she told the other woman that there was no Cartier watch in the pouch despite Grab’s found records indicating otherwise. 

Ms Ang did not suspect anything was amiss and proceeded to amend Grab’s records to indicate that the watch had not been found.

Kaushalia’s offence only came to light the next month, after some other Grab employees went through the office’s closed-circuit television footage in an attempt to find missing cash previously stored there.

The firm’s public liaison officer then lodged a police report over the missing watch on Sept 6, 2019.

For criminal breach of trust, Kaushalia could have been jailed for up to seven years or fined, or received both punishments.