A Singapore court sent an Indian national, Bahurudeen Kuthpudeen, to three-and-a-half years’ jail on Monday on charges of cheating his employer. Bahurudeen had run off with his employer’s 4,70,000 Singapore dollars to Malaysia in March this year after encashing three cheques.

He had been standing trial in the case after getting caught the very next day.

Bahurudeen Kuthpudeen, 44, pleaded guilty to one count each of criminal breach of trust and removing from Singapore the benefits of his criminal conduct, The Straits Times reported Tuesday.

His employer AM Mohamed Farook, who operates Mohamed Thahir Exchange in Collyer Quay, had signed three cheques for a total amount of $469,900 around 3 pm on March 27, 2018, the court was told. According to The Straits Times report, the cheques were meant to be encashed for the purchase of foreign currencies.

AM Mohamed reportedly gave the cheques to an employee who then passed them on to Bahurudeen, the business development manager with the company. Bahurudeen encashed the cheques at an RHB Bank’s Cecil Street branch in Singapore, according to the prosecution.

Quoting Deputy Public Prosecutor Melissa Ng, the ST report  said: “Instead of returning to the company, the accused left Singapore via the Woodlands Checkpoint bus hall at 4.46 pm.”

Bahurudeen went incommunicado after that, forcing AM Mohamed to lodge a police report the same day.

The accused was later detained at the border of Kedah while trying to flee to Thailand from Malaysia. The police seized almost $24,000 in cash from his possession.

The Straits Times had earlier reported that the Royal Malaysia Police arrested Bahurudeen on March 28, a day after he encashed the cheques. He was sent back to Singapore on March 29.

Lawyer Siraj Shaik Aziz, assigned to Bahurudeen under the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme, told the court that $458,652 of the misappropriated amount had been recovered.

Quoting Siraj, the news report said Bahurudeen was his family’s sole breadwinner. His wife is in India with their 13-year-old daughter who has a disability in her hand, according to the lawyer.

Siraj told the court Bahurudeen was “genuinely remorseful”, and that “it was financial difficulties brought on by the need to service a loan for his daughter’s hand operation that prompted the commission of the offences in a momentary lapse of judgment”.