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Jan 5, 2011
M'sian hubby fined for lying to ROM he was single
By Khushwant Singh
A MALAYSIAN and permanent resident here was on Wednesday fined the maximum $3,000 for lying to a Commissioner of Oaths that he was single when he married a Singaporean in 1998.
The marriage went through but the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) discovered the bigamy in May 2010 when businessman Tan Hock Lum, 50, applied for a student's pass for his son from an earlier marriage.
He also submitted his Malaysian marriage certificate to Madam Khoo Gun Hoo as a supporting document, and checks by ICA indicated that this marriage is still valid.
Tan pleaded guilty in a district court on Wednesday to making a false declaration.
The Malaysian came here in 1985, obtaining his PR a year later. In 1987, he married Madam Khoo Gun Hoo in Kluang in Johor while continuing his business here.
The couple went on to have three children but living apart from his family resulted in Tan befriending and growing close to a Singaporean woman in 1990.
Eight years later in 1998, they decided to marry and Tan declared he was single and not married to any other person before Commissioner of Oaths Ms V. Suppiah at the Registry of Marriages (ROM).
