Woman Who Forged Retrenchment Letter to Get COVID-19 Support Grant Sentenced to 7 Months Jailed

Some have sworn off the concept of “easy money” because it’s too mainstream.

“I like it tough and hard,” they would utter with the utmost confidence.

But for others, “easy money” comes off as an irresistible temptation.

So much so that they would turn to illegal means, just to procure the said sum of money.

Woman Who Forged Retrenchment Letter to Get COVID-19 Support Grant Sentenced to 7 Months Jailed

You may have heard of the COVID-19 Support Grant (CSG), a scheme that disburses money to individuals who lost their jobs amidst the pandemic.

But what you may not know is that out there, people have been taking advantage of such schemes.

Tiong Shi Lin, now 32, is one such case. She ended up cheating the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) of S$4,000.

But as you may have already surmised, she did not escape unscathed.

On 13 September 2021, she was sentenced to seven months’ jail for her offences, which entail two counts of cheating and one count of forgery.

Apparently, the idea first occurred to Tiong sometime back in April 2020, when she was with the healthcare tech firm Assurance Technology.

At that point in time, she had just joined the firm. Before that, she had been with spare parts supplier TVH Singapore from October 2019 to February 2020.

Harbouring ill intentions, she decided to get cash grants under the CSG even though she was not eligible.

She then sent in an online application, fibbing that she had been unemployed since February 2020.

Due to insufficient documents, however, her first application was rejected.

But Tiong was relentless.

The very next day, she tried again, this time declaring that she had not received any salary for March, April and May. To add to the lie, she included screenshots of messages from her then supervisor at TVH Singapore, which suggested that her employment had genuinely been cut off.

In reality, she had actually been paid in April and May for her role in Assurance Technology.

Nevertheless, the ruse worked, and she was paid S$2,400.

Subsequently

They say that lightning does not hit the same spot twice.

Well, that certainly doesn’t apply to the CSG as far as Tiong was concerned.

A few months later, Tiong returned to her old ways and this time forged an actual retrenchment letter from Assurance Technology.

In the letter, it was stated that her employment was scheduled to be terminated on 14 September 2020. This was, however, not the actual case.

She then submitted a picture of the letter to another CSG application sometime in October 2020.

A subsequent sum of S$1,600 was given to her.

Caught

The ruse, however, came to light when a colleague found the forged letter in her laptop bag in November 2020.

Tiong had allegedly sent her company-issued laptop for repair.

The firm was promptly alerted.

In court, Tiong’s lawyer asked for a sentence of six months, stating that she’s currently making restitution to MSF.

Despite the plea, she was ultimately sentenced to seven months’ imprisonment.

It should be noted that for cheating offences, offenders could face up to ten years in jail, as well as a fine.

Other Instances

Unfortunately, such cheating cases aren’t as rare as we would prefer.

Back in September 2020, another man had been sentenced to three months’ jail for cheating the COVID-19 grant system.

Apparently, he had forged two letters, in order to get COVID-19 support funds for his parents.

His father ended up receiving S$800. He has since returned the money.

For more context, you can click here.

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