Former mosque officer gets jail for pocketing over S$13,000 in ‘zakat’ donations

SINGAPORE: A man who was hired by a mosque to be a “zakat” officer in charge of donations from the public instead took the money for himself.
Muhammad Hafiz Mohd Yusof, 28, was sentenced to eight months’ jail on Tuesday (Aug 13).
He pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal breach of trust as an employee, with another three charges taken into consideration.
The court heard that Hafiz was employed as a zakat officer at Al-Istiqamah mosque, located at 2 Serangoon North Avenue 2.
He was tasked to collect zakat payments from members at the public at the mosque. According to Zakat.sg, zakat is a fund for the poor and needy that the Muslim community contributes to.
Muslims could make zakat payments in cash over the counter at the mosque, with Hafiz being required to issue a computer-generated receipt to payors before keeping the cash in a safebox.
If there were errors, Hafiz was to retrieve the issued receipts from the payors, void them and indicate this in the system, before issuing a new receipt with the correct details.
In April 2022, a believer went to the mosque to make zakat payment, handing over S$5,100 (US$3,873) in cash to Hafiz.
He issued a receipt for S$5,100 to the victim, but later voided it and registered the payment as S$100 instead, pocketing the rest.
He repeated this multiple times, pocketing a total of S$13,514 in zakat funds for his own personal use.
Sometime before Aug 8, 2023, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) detected irregularities in six receipts of payments which were voided by Hariz.
Investigations revealed that the actual payments made were much higher than the amounts stated in the new receipts Hafiz had issued.
A police report was lodged against him.
The prosecutor sought nine to 12 months’ jail for Hafiz, noting his “protracted and repeat offending” that went on over more than a year.
Hafiz submitted a written mitigation plea but did not say anything in open court.
In sentencing, District Judge Kok Shu-En said to him: “When you say you did this because you were struggling financially in your life, and you want me to consider this is your first offence … you must also realise that the offences you have committed are serious.”
The judge continued: “And I’m sure you appreciate this more than I do, the significance of the monies you took. These (are) not just transactional monies that people pay – these were zakat monies. And you didn’t just take it once or twice, you did it over a period of time, over and over again.”
She said she sincerely hoped that Hafiz would do as he said in his mitigation plea and turn the page.
“I sincerely hope you will do that. You are still young, there’s a long road ahead of you,” she said, allowing him to defer his jail term to September.
For criminal breach of trust as an employee, he could have been jailed for up to 15 years and fined.