SINGAPORE — An 18-year-old teenager and three others collected S$1,375 in fraudulent charity donations, using forged fundraising permits and postcards to do so.

Malcolm Chia Han Yu was sentenced to one year and three months’ probation on Tuesday (Nov 3) for his role in the scheme. He was the first one to be prosecuted.

As part of his probation conditions, he has to perform 60 hours of community service and remain indoors from 10pm to 6am. 

His parents posted a bond of S$5,000 to ensure his good behaviour.

He pleaded guilty to one charge under the House to House and Street Collections Act. 

Adult offenders can be jailed up to two years or fined up to S$5,000, or both.

The court heard that Waynne Tang Jie Chu, 19, Collin Ang, 18, and Jovan Tay, 20, were also in on the scheme. 

They have been charged and their cases are pending.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Chong Yonghui told the court that Collin responded to an online advertisement on “getting fast cash” and someone identified only as "Kingston" contacted him on messaging platform Telegram.

Court documents did not state when this happened.

Kingston gave Collin a blank fundraising permit template. Collin then shared it with Waynne and they agreed to create a fake fundraising permit.

Waynne then created fake postcards, copying one he had bought from a charity called Club Heal, which provides counselling and education services to those with mental health issues and their families.

Between December last year and February this year, Club Heal had a legitimate fundraising project where it sold postcards with serial numbers. 

After the project ended, the four youths used the fraudulent fundraising template and fake postcards to collect donations between Feb 17 and 25.

They sold each postcard at S$10. 

Each person kept 70 per cent of what they collected and gave 10 per cent each to the other three. 

They were caught when an individual involved in Club Heal’s fundraising project saw them selling the postcards on Feb 25 and called the police.