Jail for foreigner who arranged sham marriage with Singaporean to extend stay
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- A 29-year-old Filipina was sentenced to six month’s jail for entering into a marriage of convenience
- She married a 33-year-old Singaporean man in order to get a valid permit to continue working here
- Panganiban Mary Jane Jimenez paid Mohamed Fauzy S$3,000 in return for the favour
- In all, six short-term visit pass applications were approved by the authorities after their marriage
BY
SUFIYAN SAMSURI
Published June 27, 2024Updated June 27, 2024
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SINGAPORE — Hoping to extend her stay in Singapore beyond its valid period, a woman decided to arrange a sham marriage with a Singaporean and gave him money as a reward to lessen his financial burdens.
On Thursday (June 27), Panganiban Mary Jane Jimenez was sentenced to six months’ jail for entering into a marriage of convenience with Mohamed Fauzy Mohamed Kahir, 33, under the Immigration Act.
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The 29-year-old Filipina pleaded guilty via a video link in court.
Another charge of making a false statement in her long-term visit pass application was taken into consideration for the sentencing.
The sentence was backdated to her date of arrest on Nov 7 last year, but excludes the period that she was released on bail from Nov 15, 2023 to June 5, 2024.
WHAT HAPPENED
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Between November 2018 and January 2019, Jimenez was in a relationship with Fauzy.
After they broke up, they did not keep in contact but met each other again sometime in August 2022.
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She was working as a performing artiste for a pub at 29 Mosque Street and was on a work permit that was valid from Sept 3, 2022 to Feb 16, 2023.
The court heard that Jimenez was unable to renew her six-month work permit because of the Ministry of Manpower's regulations stating that foreign performing artistes cannot renew their permit until one year after the last one expires or gets cancelled.
TODAY has reached out to the ministry to find out why there is a restriction of a one-year waiting time for the permit renewal.
In order that she may remain in Singapore, Jimenez then conceived the idea of entering into a marriage of convenience.
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Sometime in November or December 2022, she told Fauzy that she needed to marry someone to get a long-term visit pass to stay here to work.
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She offered to give him S$3,000 after their marriage was solemnised, and another S$2,500 to S$3,000 through monthly instalments after the long-term visit pass was issued. This long-term visit pass would cover the period where she was expected to wait a year before she was able to renew her work permit.
In January 2023, Fauzy agreed with the plan to reduce his financial burden. He had outstanding credit card debt and child maintenance fees for his three children from his previous marriage.
Court documents stated that Jimenez’s sole purpose to engage in a marriage of convenience with Fauzy was for her to obtain an “immigration advantage”.
She later bought the wedding rings and for the solemnisation ceremony, she made a booking in a bar called Hotshots on Circular Road in the Boat Quay area.
Both Jimenez and Fauzy got their friends to be witnesses for their marriage.
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One week before the solemnisation, Jimenez asked a friend to transfer S$500 to Fauzy as part of the S$3,000 that she had promised him.
On April 19, 2023, they solemnised their marriage at the bar and thereafter, she handed over the remaining S$2,500 to him.
They did not consummate the marriage or live together.
However, throughout the marriage, Fauzy would act as the resident sponsor or the spouse for Jiminez’s applications to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) for immigration purposes.
In total, he did so for six short-term visit pass applications, which were all approved.
Another long-term visit pass application was rejected.
Jimenez gave him S$30 each time he sponsored her application, plus another S$20 to S$70 to cover his meals.
She was later arrested on Nov 7 last year.
ICA's prosecution officer Aricia Tan sought a jail sentence of six months for Jimenez's offences.
Defence lawyer Nirmal Singh argued instead that a five-month jail sentence was more appropriate, adding that the amount of money involved was not high.
For entering into a marriage of convenience, Jimenez could have been jailed for up to 10 years or fined up to S$10,000, or both.
