On 23 February 2023, a court in Singapore sentenced a man to 13 months of jail for creating a scheme to cheat the government and trick it into disbursing COVID-19 relief money both for himself and other people.
During the pandemic the defendant, who was working as a SPA manager, submitted false documents to the government, claiming that he had lost 30% of his personal income. In the light of such documents, he received a payment of 500 Singapore Dollars. Afterwards, he attempted to obtain payments for other individuals by submitting false declarations and employment documents, such as documents certifying that some people worked for the SPA whereas in fact they never did. After review of these documents, however, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore found them inconsistent and informed the police that the SPA had submitted false documents.
As a result of the investigations and consequent trial, the defendant was sentenced to jail and will begin his sentence on 10 March 2023.
