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S$3,700 fine for man who did not report change of residential address to avoid govt enforcement actions

SINGAPORE — A 35-year-old man was handed a S$3,700 fine after he failed to report a change of residential address, said the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) in a press release on Tuesday (July 4). 

S$3,700 fine for man who did not report change of residential address to avoid govt enforcement actions
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  • A 35-year-old Singaporean man was handed a S$3,700 fine on July 4 for failing to report a change of his residential address within 28 days
  • He had done so due to outstanding matters with several law enforcement agencies and wanted to avoid the authorities
  • The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) was alerted by the Urban Redevelopment Authority after its auxiliary police officers had visited his registered address to carry out an arrest
  • He surrendered himself at the Traffic Police headquarters in March 2023 to settle his outstanding matters with the agency, before ICA followed up with him on the said offence

SINGAPORE — A 35-year-old man who did not report a change of residential address in a bid to avoid the authorities as he had outstanding matters with several law enforcement agencies has been handed a S$3,700 fine.

Muhammad Taufiq Hidayat Kamsin will have to spend 10 days in jail if he is unable to pay the fine, said the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) in a press statement on Tuesday (July 4). 

ICA said that it was alerted by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) of Taufiq’s offence on April 1, 2022.

Auxiliary police officers engaged by URA visited Taufiq’s registered place of residence to execute an outstanding warrant of arrest, but were informed by the homeowner that Taufiq was no longer residing in the unit.

The homeowner also informed the officers that she did not allow Taufiq to use her address as his registered place of residence.

ICA then tried to contact Taufiq, but he remained uncontactable. He had outstanding police gazettes issued by various law enforcement agencies, including warrants of arrest.

Taufiq eventually surrendered himself at the Traffic Police's (TP) headquarters in March 2023 to settle his outstanding matters with the agency.

Investigations by ICA found that Taufiq had moved out of his previous residence in Canberra in December 2021.

He did not report a change of residence within 28 days to ICA as he had outstanding matters with several law enforcement agencies then and wanted to avoid the authorities, including the TP and ICA.

Under the National Registration Act, all identity card holders who change their place of residence must report the change to ICA within 28 days.

Those who fail to report a change of residential address may be jailed for up to five years or fined up to S$5,000, or both.

Lawyers previously told TODAY that this Act came into effect in the 1960s when Singapore was coming out of colonial rule, where forgeries and inaccuracies on identification documents were rife. 

They added that as the address listed on the NRIC is used by many government agencies and enforcement authorities to communicate officially with Singapore residents, not mandating that residents update their addresses in a timely manner would result in enforcement authorities having greater difficulty in locating the NRIC holder. 

Experts added that social services, such as government-issued vouchers, could also end up going to the wrong recipients.

Taufiq's case is the second in recent months to make the news.

On May 23, a 62-year-old man, Lee Kah Hin, was fined S$2,000 for the same offence.

Singapore citizens and permanent residents who need to report a change of residential address can do so online through ICA’s e-service at https://go.gov.sg/ic-address.

Related topics

change of address Immigration and Checkpoints Authority

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