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Darth Maul
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Feb 16, 2011
Jail and fine for solemnising fake marriage
By Khushwant Singh
Ainagoundan Kattan, 53, was jailed a week and fined $2,000 for impersonating a Justice of the Peace. -- ST PHOTO WONG KWAI CHOW
HE THOUGHT he was merely doing a favour by standing in and solemnising the marriage of his former colleague but Ainagoundan Kattan broke the law by impersonating a Justice of the Peace.
The security guard was jailed a week and fined $2,000 on Wednesday. The 53-year-old from Johor pleaded guilty on Jan 17 to pretending to solemnise the marriage between Raymond Wee Kian Seng and Ms Tham Wai Fen in 2008.
Wee, 38, was sentenced to one month in jail and fined $8,000 in December 2010 for falsifying a marriage certificate, abetting in the sham marriage and going through with it with Ms Tham, now 30.
The court heard that Wee was the operations manager of Kyowa Security Guard and General Services where Ainagoundan is working. By December 2008, Wee had left the firm but had sought the help of his colleague to 'marry' Ms Tham, a former girlfriend. He got back with her in 2006 after many years of separation.
In 2008, her father wanted them to settle down after a two-year courtship but Wee baulked at it, admitting that he had been married to Ms Frances Pang Yoke Khoon, 34, for nearly a decade. She also had twice refused him a divorce.
Instead, he roped in Ainagoundan and staged a wedding ceremony at The Pines along Stevens Road on Dec 27, 2008. The function was witnessed by Ms Tham's parents, close friends and relatives.
Wee also prepared a fake marriage certificate by scanning the original on his laptop. He amended the details and printed a colour copy. For his role in pretending to solemnise, the Malaysian received $150.
