The Indonesian man found the tickets on the floor of the casino. (representational Pic)
A tourist, who encashed tickets he found in a casino, has been sentenced to four-month jail in Singapore. According to South China Morning post (SCMP), the incident took place in March when Silitonga Andri Parulian from Indonesia spotted eight slot machine tickets worth $17,900 on the floor at Singapore's Marina Bay Sands Casino. The tickets had fallen out of staff member's folder near the entrance of the room, moments before Silitonga was to begin gambling. He quickly picked up the tickets then encashed them all at the casino.
The 27-year-old rushed to Changi International Airport to try to flee Singapore, the SCMP report said. He was, however, arrested.
State Prosecutor Lim Yeow Leong told the court that the slot machine staffer was carrying the ticket folder on March 26, when a lot dropped just outside the Ruby Room.
The tickets belonged to Tham Wan Nyit, a manager who was in charge of slot-machine operations at the casino, the outlet reported quoting court official.
Just then, Silitonga arrived at the sport and picked up the tickets with no intention of returning them or handing them over the casino security.
The entire incident was caught on CCTV installed inside the casino.
After leaving the casino, Silitonga spent the night at the airport and even called a friend seeking help to transfer some of the money to his Indonesian bank account.
He then used services of Western Union Money Transfer and sent Singapore $3,000 to his account and Singapore $2,000 to his girlfriend's account in Indonesia.
He transferred more money the next day.
Casino officials, meanwhile, filed a police complaint and Silitonga was identified from the CCTV footage. As he tried to clear immigration to board a flight to Indonesia three days ago, he was identified to be on the stop list.
He refused to hand over the money he transferred and did not inform the police what he did with the remaining amount. When Silitonga was produced before the court, he pleaded with the judge for a lighter sentence.
He was sentenced to four months in jail after pleading guilty to a single charge of dishonestly misappropriating money.