A FORMER accounts clerk who siphoned off more than half a million dollars from her employer was jailed for four years and three months on Thursday.

Lim Siew Wei, 38, was working at Nihon Superior Trading at Little Road when she misappropriated $511,151 between Jan 14 and Oct 24, 2005.

She pleaded guilty to the charge.

A district court heard that she took cash cheques meant for company expenses and deposited them into her personal bank account.

She made restitution of only $1,240.

A bank officer discovered some irregularities in the cash cheques, which were crossed, signed by the company's managing director and subsequently deposited into Lim's personal bank account, in January last year. She made a police report.

A second similar charge involving $187,498 was taken into consideration.

District Judge Thian Yee Sze noted that the siphoning of money took place over a period of time, and the amount was not a 'small measure''.

Lim, who is married with a son, could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined for criminal breach of trust.