After 30 years on the run, former HDB officer jailed for 42 weeks

SINGAPORE — A former Housing and Development Board (HDB) officer, who had been on the run for 30 years after forging more than 100 works order documents, was on Tuesday (June 13) sentenced to 42 weeks' jail.

Hew Chong Wai, 53, admitted to 18 counts of forgery, after he was arrested by Malaysia authorities last month in Seremban. Another 110 charges of forgery were taken into consideration.

Hew was a housing and maintenance inspector attached to HDB's Clementi West office in 1987, when he forged the signatures of two senior HDB officers for 18 works order, which were then worth over S$25,000. The sanitary works were not carried out, and subsequent investigations uncovered more than a hundred other forged work documents.

Hew, who is a Malaysian, had gotten to know Tan Kiam Hock, who was the subcontractor of Yaw Eng Construction, which in turn did work for Leong Hup Lee Construction Trading, the term contractor for sanitary work in HDB's Clementi West Area Office.

Over a period of a month, Hew would forge the work order documents bearing the signatures of Mr Chan Sin Chan, who was a senior housing and maintenance inspector, and Mr Ching Toong Hon, who was a senior estates officer. Both Mr Chan and Mr Ching were responsible for checking and approving the works.

Tan presented the forged documents to Yaw Eng Construction, which paid him the amount stated in the work orders, ranging between S$100 to more than S$1,000, on the same day. Yaw Eng Construction would later submit the documents to the main contractor, who then billed the Clementi West area office for the work.

Tan, who was convicted in May 1988, fraudulently received S$53,602.48 in all. Hew received S$22,959.50, now worth S$38,908.79, factoring in inflation.

During the course of investigations, Hew's Malaysia Restricted Passport was seized. Despite the seizure, and knowing that he was wanted by Corrupt Practices and Investigation Bureau officers, Hew fled from Singapore.

Calling for at least 10 months' imprisonment for Hew, Deputy Public Prosecutor Sanjiv Vaswani reiterated that he was a public servant at the time of the offences. And despite having his passport taken away, Hew had "found ways to leave the country", the prosecutor added.

When asked by District Judge Kenneth Yap if he had anything to say in his defence, Hew, who is representing himself in court, pleaded for leniency. But this earned a rebuke from the judge, who pointed out that Hew had absconded from Singapore and was back to face the music because he was caught by Malaysian police. "Now you are asking for leniency?" the judge chided. In sentencing, the judge said that he had taken into account the fact that Hew had "evaded the justice system for 30 years, and did not surrender (himself)".