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Naturalised Singaporean could be stripped of citizenship: MHA

This article is more than 12 months old

A naturalised Singaporean, once ranked among China's 100 wealthiest individuals, stands to be stripped of his citizenship and has 21 days to ask for his case to be heard.

Mick Davies, 58, who changed his name from Lan Shili in 2014, was served a notice yesterday, following a probe which showed he had used forged educational certificates to support his citizenship application in 2002.

He also failed to disclose then that he had previously held the passport and citizenship of a third country.

Other blemishes on his record included flouting laws both here and abroad, which meant "it is not conducive to the public good for him to remain a Singapore citizen", said the Ministry of Home Affairs yesterday.

RELEASED FROM PRISON

Davies is understood to have been recently released from prison, having served a five-month jail sentence for using a Hong Kong passport with the particulars of another person to return to Singapore in July 2016.

He had been imprisoned in China in 2010 for tax evasion and was being investigated for fraud by the Chinese authorities in 2016.

Though his Singapore passport had been impounded, he managed to flee China and enter Vietnam illegally.

There he tried and failed to obtain a travel document at the Singapore Mission in Hanoi by lying that he lost his Singapore passport. Subsequently, he returned under a false identity.

He was detained by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, convicted and jailed for multiple immigration offences related to his Singapore entry.

Davies became a Singapore citizen in 2002 but there was no adverse information against him at that time, said MHA. Aside from Davies, he went by another name, Jack Thomson, in 2013.

MHA said the Government took a very serious view of persons who commit fraud and provide false information to conceal material facts in their application to any Singaporean immigration facility, including for citizenship.

If he applies to be referred to a Citizenship Committee of Inquiry, his case will be heard and the findings reported to the Minister for Home Affairs to decide whether to strike off his citizenship.

The last time a Singapore citizen was deprived of his Singapore citizenship for having obtained it through deceit or fraudulent means was in 2008, said an MHA spokesman.

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