AsiaOne
Thursday, Jul 12, 2012
A 43-year-old man has been sentenced to
nice months’ jail for 15 counts of making false declarations to the
Controller of Work Passes today.
During the six-and-a-half day trial, the court heard that
Patrick Boo Tuang Hock had made CPF
contributions for five local persons who employed by BNR Cafe to inflate the cafe’s entitlement for foreign
workers.
These CPF payments were made as early as
July 2008, even though the cafe did not start operations till five
months later. Boo had personally prepared 15 work pass
applications, and arranged for the registered Director of
BNR Cafe, Lim Yen Geok to sign the work pass
declaration. This states that Lim was aware that the cafe’s
CPF account(s) were used by MOM to determine its foreign worker entitlement.
Boo knew the statements were false as the five workers had never
worked in his cafe. After Lim signed the forms, Boo arranged for
the false declarations to be submitted to MOM.
Boo claimed trial when MOM brought charges
against him in court. He said that he did not know it was wrong to
hire “phantom workers”, and claimed that he was acting under the
instruction from business partner Lau Yew Leong, whom he said was
the true owner of the cafe. However the court was told that Lau
only invested money in the cafe and left business decisions,
including recruitment, to Boo.
The judge found Boo guilty of making a false declaration
knowingly when the application forms were submitted to the
Controller of Work Passes. Boo has filed an appeal against the
sentence.
Making a false declaration to the controller through
manipulating their company’s CPF accounts for
the purpose of inflating their foreign workers entitlement is an
offence. If found guilty, the offender faces up to 12 months’ jail,
or a fine not exceeding $15,000, or both for each application
submitted.
