Jail for exec who tried to cheat MSF of Covid-19 relief funds
A man, who claimed to have been retrenched to cheat the authorities into disbursing Covid-19 relief funds to him, has been jailed.
Chow Jia Chuan, 29, tried a second time after succeeding in cheating the Ministry of Social and Family Development(MSF) into giving him $500 the first time.
He was jailed for five months yesterday after pleading guilty to one count of cheating and two counts of attempted cheating.
In April, Chow then a business development executive, told his supervisor he wanted to resign as he disliked the job and had interpersonal issues with a colleague.
Before his last day at work, Chow accessed the Temporary Relief Fund (TRF) application and dishonestly declared he had lost his job due to the pandemic.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT SCHEME
The TRF is a financial support scheme launched by the Government to help those whose jobs have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
His application was accepted and $500 was disbursed to him.
He tried his luck again in May when he applied for the Covid-19 Support Grant (CSG), once again lying that he had lost his job due to the pandemic.
While processing his application, an MSF officer asked Chow for supporting documents, such as a termination or retrenchment letter.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jeremy Bin said Chow then forged a retrenchment letter.
To make it look legitimate, he copied the signature block of the human resource business partner from his previous company and inserted it at the bottom of the letter.
But his lie was exposed when the MSF officer contacted the business partner and rejected his application.
But Chow reapplied for the CSG and attached the same forged retrenchment letter.
The MSF officer then lodged a police report.
In July, Chow refunded the $500 TRF grant.
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