Ex-company director jailed after trying to fake death to escape jail
A former company director was jailed for 18 months after he submitted fake documents, including a death certificate, to evade responsibility for his previous offences.
Yesterday, Ng Kek Wee, 55, pleaded guilty to abetting the provision of false information to a public servant, abetting the fabrication of false evidence to the court and failing to attend a court session.
Ng had been sentenced to 30 months' jail in May 2017 for misappropriating three million shares of a subsidiary belonging to Singalab International, a technology company of which he was a director.
He then filed an appeal and was allowed to leave the country for work, with his appeal fixed for July 20, 2018, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Thiagesh Sukumaran.
Ng's lawyer, Mr Lim Chee San, applied for several adjournments as Ng was in China seeking medical treatment and was found to be unfit to travel to Singapore. Mr Lim later told the court that Ng would be returning to Singapore for the appeal.
The judge ordered Mr Lim to upload a copy of Ng's flight itinerary, which showed he would be arriving on March 13 last year.
But on March 15, Mr Lim tendered a death certificate along with a letter saying Ng had died in Indonesia on March 10.
Ng had left Indonesia a week before his purported death and was flying between Malaysia and China during the time he was supposedly dead.
FORGED
Ng paid 300 yuan (S$60) to somebody in China to make a forged flight itinerary from Shenzhen to Singapore, with a stopover in Jakarta so it could coincide with his fake death certificate.
He then travelled to Indonesia and paid $2,000 to one "Ali Ruslan" to forge a death certificate and e-mail it to Mr Lim.
A warrant of arrest was issued, and in August last year, the Malaysian authorities informed the Singapore police that Ng had been arrested at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
DPP Thiagesh asked for at least 18 months' jail, and said Ng's actions were premeditated and the authorities had to expend numerous resources, including obtaining assistance from foreign agencies, to prove that he was alive.
In a press release yesterday, the Singapore Police Force said Mr Lim was not aware the flight itinerary was forged.
The Commercial Affairs Department carried out checks and discovered Ng had travelled to Malaysia several times after he had supposedly died.
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