Man jailed for lying over passport application
Posted: 05 December 2011 1746 hrs
SINGAPORE: A man was sent to jail for three months on November 30 for making false statements to apply for a new passport after using it as collateral.
Fong Poh Huat was charged in June and sentenced on November 30.
In a media release on Monday, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said he was charged with making two false statements to the ICA and the Consulate-General of Singapore in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
In February this year, the 38-year-old Singaporean had travelled to Vietnam to look for business opportunities and also to search for his estranged Vietnamese wife.
But he went to gamble at a casino and lost more than S$10,000.
He borrowed US$12,000 from another gambler and continued to lose money at the gambling table.
He then signed an agreement with the man who loaned him the money, agreeing to repay him, handing over his Singapore passport as collateral.
He later went to the Consulate-General in Ho Chi Minh City to ask for a Document of Identity (DOI), an emergency travel document to return to Singapore.
In the application for the DOI, he said he had "dropped his passport".
After his return in March, he went to the ICA to apply for a new passport.
This time, he said his passport was taken away by a motorbike rider.
He was charged on June 17 this year.
The ICA says it takes a serious view of Singaporeans who make false or misleading statements to apply for a Singapore passport or any Singapore travel document.
They can be prosecuted under the Passport Act (Section 39) and fined up to $10,000 or jailed up to 10 years or both.
The ICA says it also reserves the right to deny issuing passports to anyone who misuses the document.
- CNA/fa