Aussie allegedly conspired with GP to unlawfully obtain Covid-19 vaccination certificates
An Australian man was charged in a district court on Wednesday (June 8) after he allegedly conspired with general practitioner Jipson Quah and the doctor's then clinic assistant Thomas Chua Cheng Soon to unlawfully obtain certificates of vaccination against Covid-19.
David Christopher Newton, 43, is now accused of two counts of working with the pair to dishonestly make false representations to the Ministry of Health (MOH) between Dec 26 last year and Jan 15 this year.
According to court documents, Newton had not received the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine at the time.
Despite this, the trio are said to have falsely represented to MOH that he had received the vaccine so that he could obtain the certificate.
The three men are also accused of making a similar false representation to MOH by claiming a woman had received the vaccine when she had not, so that she could obtain the certificate.
Court documents did not disclose how she is related to Newton.
He was offered bail of $15,000 on Wednesday and his pre-trial conference will be held on July 5.
For each count of conspiring to make a false representation, an offender can be jailed for up to 20 years and fined.
Quah, 33, was arrested on Jan 21 along with Chua, 40, and Iris Koh, 46, the founder of anti-vaccine group Healing the Divide.
The trio had allegedly conspired to cheat and submit falsified vaccination records to MOH. Their cases are pending.
Quah has since been suspended over acts including administering fake Covid-19 jabs to some 15 patients, allegedly charging at least three people up to $1,500 per dose.
In its grounds of decision published online in April, the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) said these offences are very serious and warrant the maximum suspension of 18 months.
It also said that Quah's actions had put the general public at risk, and could have undermined confidence in the medical profession as well as Singapore's Covid-19 testing capabilities.
The SMC's interim orders committee set out examples of how Quah had broken the rules.
Among other things, he administered saline solution to the 15 patients in place of the Covid-19 vaccine.
He then reported these patients to the National Immunisation Registry as having been vaccinated. This happened around last December and January this year.
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