By Channel NewsAsia, Updated: 17/07/2013
25 foreigners jailed for fraudently obtaining work passes
SINGAPORE: 25 foreigners have been prosecuted for submitting forged academic certificates to the Controller of Work Passes in order to obtain work passes.
The Manpower Ministry (MOM) said this is the largest number of individuals brought to court so far this year for this offence.
21 are from Myanmar, three from India and one from the Philippines. The 20 males and five females are aged between 19 and 48 years old. All 25 had given false information to the Controller of Work Passes between May and August 2012 in their applications for work passes.
24 had obtained forged academic certificates from their home countries and used them to apply for work passes. The 25th person knew that a forged academic certificate was submitted on her behalf by an employment agent and intentionally failed to notify MOM.
All the accused did not possess any university degree qualifications.
The forged academic certificates were knowingly used to mislead MOM into issuing work passes to them.
The 25 accused were issued with work passes to perform work in operations, sales and retail. Based on the information declared, the 25 accused had been working less than a year here before they were arrested and investigated in May.
All 25 accused pleaded guilty to the charges on Tuesday.
Of the 25, 20 were each sentenced to four weeks' jail. The remaining five accused were fined S$5,000.
MOM said these five were unable to pay up their fines so they would be serving the default sentence of 20 days' jail. - CNA/ac
