Ex-hair salon worker gets jail for spending customers' CDC vouchers on herself

A former Yun Nam Hair Care employee was sentenced to jail after spending over $1,000 of customers' Community Development Council (CDC) vouchers on herself.

Phang Koh Xing gained access to the voucher redemption links from two customers' under the pretext of helping them set up payment methods on their phones.

The 31-year-old pleaded guilty on Wednesday (July 22) to one charge of criminal breach of trust and one charge under the Computer Misuse Act.

She was sentenced to six weeks' jail after another two charges of a similar nature were taken into consideration.

Phang committed the offences as a customer service consultant at the salon's Ang Mo Kio Hub outlet, where part of her job involved helping customers set up payment methods on their phones.

She told the court she had resigned from her job, according to CNA.

According to courts documents obtained by AsiaOne, the first offence occurred on Aug 1, 2025 when a 60-year-old woman visited the salon.

While the customer was deciding on a hair treatment plan, she handed over her phone to Phang to help set up Shopee instalment payments.

While setting up the payment mode, Phang surreptitiously accessed the woman's text messages and forwarded her CDC voucher redemption link to her own number.

Phang then accessed the redemption link and used the vouchers across nine transactions between Aug 1 and Aug 3. 

She spent a total of $575 at various merchants including FairPrice, Sheng Siong, an optical shop and some department stores and food outlets.

On Aug 4, the 60-year-old woman lodged a police report over unauthorised use of her vouchers.

Subsequently, Phang repeated her tactics on another 31-year-old woman on Aug 9, 2025. 

She similarly accessed the redemption links to the customer's CDC vouchers while helping her set up payment through the Atome app.

Between Aug 9 and Aug 11, she spent $592 worth of vouchers across seven transactions ranging from a salon to supermarkets and department stores. 

The 31-year-old woman reported the unauthorised transactions on Sep 2, 2025.

Phang has made voluntary restitution of $200 to the 31-year-old woman. The prosecution argued that she pay compensation to both victims for the outstanding amounts after this restitution, according to CNA.

The penalty for criminal breach of trust is a jail term of up to seven years and/or a fine. 

Those convicted under the Computer Misuse Act can be jailed for up to 10 years and/or fined up to $50,000. 

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laili.abdeen@asiaone.com