Man fined for sending e-mail to NTU researcher, falsely claiming to have Covid-19

A man who signed up for a voluntary research study at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), but did not want to turn up for a second session, sent a researcher an e-mail falsely stating that he had tested positive for Covid-19.

Paul Chan Kin Nang committed the offence despite knowing that he could withdraw from the study at any time without any penalty.

On Wednesday (June 29), Chan, 42, was fined $5,000 after he pleaded guilty to the offence.

Due to his lies on Sept 6, 2020, two university staff members had to be placed on leave of absence until the Ministry of Health (MOH) uncovered the truth about his claims.

NTU also temporarily suspended the study's research activities and data collection on campus on Sept 7 that year.

Research activities for that week and the week after were disrupted and NTU had to pay nearly $350 for the logistical changes.

Defence lawyer Josiah Zee told the court that Chan is a civil servant and was not part of NTU at the time of the offence.

Mr Zee said that his client told the lie as he was worried the researchers would form a poor impression of him.

The court heard that Chan had signed up for the research study titled Studying The Mental Processes In Decision Making. The participants were paid based on the stage of the task.

Deputy Public Prosecutor R. Arvindren said that Chan attended the first session of the study at NTU on Sept 1, 2020, and it went smoothly.

The prosecutor added: "It was made known to the accused that any participant can withdraw from the study at any point in time without any penalty."

The second session of the study was fixed on Sept 7 that year and the researcher sent Chan an e-mail the day before to remind him about it.

Chan replied: "I am unable to attend the session tomorrow as I am tested positive for Covid-19 and (am now quarantined) in hospital."

He did not test positive for the virus.

In the same e-mail, Chan also asked NTU to make a payment to him for attending the first session.

The researcher responded to the e-mail asking Chan questions such as when he went for Covid-19 testing but the offender did not reply.

The researcher alerted her colleagues, and an NTU administration manager sent Chan an e-mail stating: "We are sorry to have to trouble you to provide us with some information, as NTU has to check with MOE (the Ministry of Education) on follow-up actions for our research personnel who were in contact with you last week."

Chan responded, claiming that his e-mail had been hacked and an unauthorised person had purportedly sent the message containing the lies.

On Sept 7, 2020, MOH told NTU that Chan was not on its records of positive Covid-19 cases.

Two days later, the administration manager alerted the police about the false alarm. Police officers questioned Chan and he came clean about his lies.

The prosecutor said: "The accused... did not want to turn up for the second session but also did not want to formally reject NTU's reminder."

Urging the court to impose a fine of at least $5,000, the prosecutor said: "The accused's act was plain irresponsible and there was no benefit to anybody, even the accused himself.

"The accused's act took place at a time when vaccination was still not available and there was considerable distress when one came into contact with positive Covid-19 cases."

Pleading for leniency, Mr Zee told the court that there was no malicious intent on Chan's part and that he is remorseful

For committing the offence, Chan could have been jailed for up to three years and fined up to $10,000.