<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Passport mix-up man a bankrupt
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>A growing number like him have flouted rule on unauthorised travel </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Carolyn Quek & Teh Joo Lin
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->WHEN a retiree flew to Vietnam on his son's passport in June last year, the immigration authorities came under fire.
But it has since come to light that his son - an undischarged bankrupt barred from unauthorised travel - had used that same passport in the year before the incident to make 30 trips abroad without official approval.
Mr Vincent Ang, 39, has pleaded guilty and since served a four-week jail term for flouting the law governing travel by bankrupts.
Undischarged bankrupts are supposed to seek clearance from the Official Assignee (OA) ahead of any trip out of the country.
An OA is a court officer who administers the affairs of such individuals, including ensuring that they do not stash away income or assets and keeping track of their movements for their creditors' benefit.
Mr Ang's unapproved trips came to light last September, in the course of an investigation made into his affairs by the OA.
He is among a growing number among the 26,500 bankrupts here caught leaving the country each year without prior approval: Last year, 114 bankrupts were taken to task, 33 more than the year before; in the first half of this year alone, the number had already hit 118.
Court documents said that between March 2007 and April last year, Mr Ang, declared a bankrupt in June 2002, made 30 trips to places such as Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and France.
Then on the morning of June 23 last year, his 61-year-old father mistakenly grabbed his well-travelled passport for his holiday to Vietnam.
The older man made it through check-in, immigration and other checkpoints. It was not until he was airborne that he realised the mix-up.
Meanwhile, the younger Mr Ang was to have made another unauthorised trip that day - to Hong Kong this time.
Because he did not have his passport, he had to miss his flight. He subsequently made this trip after his dad doubled back to Singapore and father and son swopped passports.
The passport glitch triggered a dressing down for the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) from Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng, who said he was 'appalled' and 'flabbergasted' at the slip-up; he called for a tightening of operations on the ground across all the agencies of the Home Affairs Ministry (MHA).
The lapse was among the few in MHA last year, including the escape of terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari.
In response to queries, a Law Ministry spokesman said the Insolvency and Public Trustee's Office (IPTO) and ICA have designed a system to exchange data on travel by undischarged bankrupts.
Such individuals are now less likely to get away with unauthorised travel, as shown by the higher numbers of people prosecuted, fined or issued warnings this year, said the spokesman.
Bankrupts deemed likely to skip town are on a watch list; they may also have their passports detained by the OA.
The Law Ministry did not say how the younger Mr Ang managed to elude detection in 2007 and last year.
The law puts the onus on bankrupts to declare when they want to go abroad. The green light to go is 'generally granted' for employment reasons, as this enables them to earn income to pay their creditors. Permission is also granted on compassionate grounds.
About 90 per cent of bankrupts who apply for travel get the go-ahead. About 43,000 applications, including repeat ones, were made each year in the last two years.
=> CSJ is one of the few "unlucky" ones? Even going to Daiwan to see his dying father-in-law could also trigger an arrest warrant for his case. Why?
Mr Ang himself previously applied for permission several times in 2005, but stopped doing so for those 30 trips in 2007 and last year when he travelled for work.
Speaking to The Straits Times from abroad yesterday, he declined comment on the matter but said he had obtained permission for his current trip.
[email protected]
[email protected]
<HR SIZE=1 width="50%">
The law puts the onus on bankrupts to declare when they want to go abroad. The green light to go is 'generally granted' for employment reasons, as this enables them to earn income to pay their creditors. Permission is also granted on compassionate grounds. About 90 per cent of bankrupts who apply for travel get the go-ahead. About 43,000 applications, including repeat ones, were made each year in the last two years.
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>A growing number like him have flouted rule on unauthorised travel </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Carolyn Quek & Teh Joo Lin
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->WHEN a retiree flew to Vietnam on his son's passport in June last year, the immigration authorities came under fire.
But it has since come to light that his son - an undischarged bankrupt barred from unauthorised travel - had used that same passport in the year before the incident to make 30 trips abroad without official approval.
Mr Vincent Ang, 39, has pleaded guilty and since served a four-week jail term for flouting the law governing travel by bankrupts.
Undischarged bankrupts are supposed to seek clearance from the Official Assignee (OA) ahead of any trip out of the country.
An OA is a court officer who administers the affairs of such individuals, including ensuring that they do not stash away income or assets and keeping track of their movements for their creditors' benefit.
Mr Ang's unapproved trips came to light last September, in the course of an investigation made into his affairs by the OA.
He is among a growing number among the 26,500 bankrupts here caught leaving the country each year without prior approval: Last year, 114 bankrupts were taken to task, 33 more than the year before; in the first half of this year alone, the number had already hit 118.
Court documents said that between March 2007 and April last year, Mr Ang, declared a bankrupt in June 2002, made 30 trips to places such as Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and France.
Then on the morning of June 23 last year, his 61-year-old father mistakenly grabbed his well-travelled passport for his holiday to Vietnam.
The older man made it through check-in, immigration and other checkpoints. It was not until he was airborne that he realised the mix-up.
Meanwhile, the younger Mr Ang was to have made another unauthorised trip that day - to Hong Kong this time.
Because he did not have his passport, he had to miss his flight. He subsequently made this trip after his dad doubled back to Singapore and father and son swopped passports.
The passport glitch triggered a dressing down for the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) from Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng, who said he was 'appalled' and 'flabbergasted' at the slip-up; he called for a tightening of operations on the ground across all the agencies of the Home Affairs Ministry (MHA).
The lapse was among the few in MHA last year, including the escape of terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari.
In response to queries, a Law Ministry spokesman said the Insolvency and Public Trustee's Office (IPTO) and ICA have designed a system to exchange data on travel by undischarged bankrupts.
Such individuals are now less likely to get away with unauthorised travel, as shown by the higher numbers of people prosecuted, fined or issued warnings this year, said the spokesman.
Bankrupts deemed likely to skip town are on a watch list; they may also have their passports detained by the OA.
The Law Ministry did not say how the younger Mr Ang managed to elude detection in 2007 and last year.
The law puts the onus on bankrupts to declare when they want to go abroad. The green light to go is 'generally granted' for employment reasons, as this enables them to earn income to pay their creditors. Permission is also granted on compassionate grounds.
About 90 per cent of bankrupts who apply for travel get the go-ahead. About 43,000 applications, including repeat ones, were made each year in the last two years.
=> CSJ is one of the few "unlucky" ones? Even going to Daiwan to see his dying father-in-law could also trigger an arrest warrant for his case. Why?
Mr Ang himself previously applied for permission several times in 2005, but stopped doing so for those 30 trips in 2007 and last year when he travelled for work.
Speaking to The Straits Times from abroad yesterday, he declined comment on the matter but said he had obtained permission for his current trip.
[email protected]
[email protected]
<HR SIZE=1 width="50%">
The law puts the onus on bankrupts to declare when they want to go abroad. The green light to go is 'generally granted' for employment reasons, as this enables them to earn income to pay their creditors. Permission is also granted on compassionate grounds. About 90 per cent of bankrupts who apply for travel get the go-ahead. About 43,000 applications, including repeat ones, were made each year in the last two years.
