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ComCare recipient jailed for four months for forging cheque

Singapore — He was entitled to S$200 a month in ComCare social assistance, but was given a blank cheque last year by those disbursing the funds.

Singapore — He was entitled to S$200 a month in ComCare social assistance, but was given a blank cheque last year by those disbursing the funds.

Faced with debts and expenses, some arising from his father’s battle with lung cancer, Khoo Chin Guan, 29, wrote S$8,000 on the cheque and had the money deposited into his bank account.

His dishonest deed caught up with him when Mdm Soh Teng Hua, accountant for Zhenghua Citizens’ Consultative Committee (CCC), made a police report on Dec 6 last year, stating that S$8,000 had been withdrawn from the CCC’s Community Development and Welfare Fund through the cheque issued to Khoo. Mdm Soh suspected that Khoo, a beneficiary of the ComCare programme of the North West Community Development Council, had amended the cheque.

For forgery, Khoo was yesterday sentenced to four months’ jail by the State Courts.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Ang Siok Chen said the aggravating factors in Khoo’s case were the significant sum involved and the fact that it had come from a welfare fund.

Investigations revealed that the cheque was issued around June 24 last year, with no amount written on it. Khoo received it a week later and acknowledged receipt by signing on a payment voucher issued by Zhenghua CCC.

He has not made restitution, but told the court yesterday that he intended to do so. His father has died and he is the sole breadwinner of his family, he added.

NEO CHAI CHIN

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