SINGAPORE — A 33-year-old operations manager of a chicken distribution company was jailed 16 months for stealing more than 10,000 frozen and fresh whole chickens as well as five cartons of chicken wings.

The loot was worth more than S$30,000 in total.

Au Yong Seh Enn, a Malaysian, pleaded guilty on Thursday (Feb 13) to one count of theft.

He had been working since December 2013 for Hy-Fresh Industries in Singapore, which distributes both fresh and frozen chickens based on orders placed by customers.

The court heard that his employer discovered what he did after two other Hy-Fresh employees spotted major discrepancies in the stock figures for the months of September, October and November last year.

It was reported to the company’s director Ng Lay Hong, 60, who then made a police report on Jan 7 this year after Au Yong admitted to have stolen the chickens and sold them to third parties without his boss’ consent. 

The police arrested Au Yong that same day.

Investigations revealed that the employee, whose job scope was to buy, sell and deliver chickens to customers, had sold the stolen chickens for a total of about S$50,000 to S$60,000.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Rimplejit Kaur said that he used the earnings to settle his gambling debts and repay loans that he had obtained from unlicensed moneylenders, among other things.

The stolen chickens could not be recovered and Au Yong could not make any restitution either, she added.

The price of each chicken — fresh or frozen — was S$2.86, the court heard.

Au Yong sold them by cartons of 10 pieces of chicken to third parties three times a week between Sept 1 and Nov 18 last year.

In September, 2,337 chickens were misappropriated. 

The company later found that there ought to have been a balance of 2,501 chickens based on the orders placed by customers, but there were just 164 chickens in stock.

This amounted to losses of about S$6,680.

The next month, there was again a shortage of 4,268 chickens and some S$12,200 were lost.

For the first 18 days of November, there was a shortfall of 3,971 chickens and five cartons of chicken wings, which were collectively valued at S$224.70, were missing.

Before that month was up, total losses to Hy-Fresh had run into some S$11,600.

For committing theft by clerk or servant of property, Au Yong could have been jailed up to seven years and fined.