SINGAPORE – An officer from the Ministry of Law’s (MinLaw) Insolvency and Public Administrator Office (IPTO) raided her computer system at work and found out that her cycling friend was bankrupt.

Despite this, Rozita Mohamed Rosli continued to swindle the 46-year-old woman out of $4,000, claiming the money was for a so-called “loading” allegedly required as part of a trial discharge from bankruptcy.

Rozita even suggested the victim to borrow money from her brother-in-law when she said she did not have enough money at the time.

The victim was able to raise the funds after pawning her gold bracelet and handed Rozita $4,000 in cash in July 2022.

On November 13, the 42-year-old criminal was sentenced to 15 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count each of fraud and misuse of a computer system.

Rozita, who has since returned the full amount to the victim, was an individual insolvency administrator at the IPTO at the time the crimes were committed.

Responding to questions from The Straits Times, MinLaw said it learned about Rozita’s case in January 2023.

The Ministry was notified in March 2024 that Rozița would be charged in court for crimes revealed during police investigations. She was then suspended on half pay in line with civil service guidelines.

“While police investigations were ongoing, the officer was redeployed to a role without access to bankruptcy or other sensitive information,” her spokesman said, adding that MinLaw was taking disciplinary proceedings against her following the conviction.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) June Ngian said the victim was declared bankrupt in June 2017.

Under one particular scheme, she had to make monthly payments of $120 over five years for a total payment of $6,000.

Rozita met her around February 2022 and the pair became cycling buddies soon after.

In May 2022, Rozita suspected that the victim was bankrupt and decided to find out more about her.

Rozita was at her workplace when she illegally used her computer to search for the victim’s information in an internal computer system. Then he learned that the victim was bankrupt.

In June 2022, she called and told the victim that she knew about her bankruptcy.

They were with a group of friends later that month when Rozita asked the victim if she could talk in private. She then tricked the victim into believing that an additional $4,000 was required as part of a bankruptcy discharge.