Man jailed 1.5 years for series of dishonest acts
A man in handcuffs. TODAY file photo
SINGAPORE — He was about to start a six-month jail term for cheating offences, but Goh Jun Jie decided to take a company cheque home and change the name of the payee to his wife’s, pocketing S$8,900.
Months later, after he was released but under investigation for the forgery offence, he lied to an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) official to get a new passport — he claimed it had been stolen when it was actually impounded. He was caught when trying to leave the country.
Goh, labelled by the prosecution lawyer as an unrepentant offender with a propensity for dishonesty, was yesterday sentenced to one-and-a-half years’ jail, for forgery and false declaration for passport.
The court heard that Goh, 28, was convicted for a string of cheating offences on June 19 last year. Sentencing was adjourned till Aug 7, at his request. But during this time, Goh decided to commit a fresh offence — forgery.
At this point, he was still working as an account executive at Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort and Spa. He was in charge of preparing cheques for the resort’s suppliers, and his duties included using Scotch tape to remove misprinted words and subsequently printing the correct words on cheques.
On July 2 last year, he took a cheque for S$8,900 home and used the sticky-tape technique to erase the payee’s name. The cheque was deposited into his wife’s bank account, and half of the funds were transferred to Goh. He did not stop there. In March this year, he committed criminal breach of trust by misappropriating about S$18,000 in cash, while working as a theatre manager at Shaw Theatres Lido.
After he was arrested on May 30 this year for the forgery offence, Goh was granted bail, but was instructed to stay in Singapore and had his passport impounded.
Undeterred, Goh told the ICA that he had lost his passport in a taxi on May 31, and received a new passport on June 8. At 1pm the same day, he was arrested at Changi Airport while trying to skip town.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Alexander Woon said Goh had a “breathtaking lack of remorse and a blatant disregard for the law”. Calling for a jail term of 21 months, the DPP said that a significantly higher time of imprisonment was warranted, to protect the public from Goh.
However, defence lawyer Cai Cheng Ying said Goh had committed forgery “in a heated manner”, after an argument with his wife over financial woes.
He was drawing a monthly salary of S$1,600 and his China-born wife, who was on a Long-Term Visit Pass, could not find work.
Moreover, she was five months’ pregnant then. Goh had used the stolen money to buy a pram and a breast pump for his family.
Ms Cai added that when Goh attempted to leave Singapore, he had bought a return ticket to Malaysia, and his intention was to visit his sick grandfather. He wanted to visit the man who raised him “one last time” and planned to return to face the music, she said.
Delivering the sentence, District Judge Jasvender Kaur said: “I understand the need to visit a relative, but the fact is that he could have made arrangements (for this).”
Goh’s sentence was backdated to the start of his remand in June. The charge of criminal breach of trust was taken into consideration.
