Man gets jail after forging recall order for reservist training to cheat company
Mohd Faizal Abdullah, 30, pleaded guilty to one count of forgery for the purpose of cheating, with a charge of cheating considered for his sentencing.
Faizal was employed by Goldtech, a recruitment company that provides employees to clients.
Between March 2021 and March 2022, Goldtech arranged for him to work at Fujitsu Asia. After this job, Faizal was supposed to work for NEC Asia Pacific, starting from Mar 14, 2022.
On Feb 28, 2022 however, Faizal informed a recruitment consultant working on behalf of Goldtech that he was being called for reservist and provided a screenshot of an email. The period of the reservist training clashed with his start date at NEC.
The consultant asked for a copy of Faizal's recall order, but the latter gave an excuse not to. When asked to defer his reservist training, Faizal claimed that he called the National Service hotline but was told that he would be charged unless he attended it.
The recruitment consultant did not question him further and informed her colleague. Goldtech then postponed the start date of Faizal's job with NEC to Mar 22, 2022.
Faizal resigned from his NEC job on Mar 25, 2022 and stopped working for Goldtech.
Meanwhile, a staff member submitted a claim with the Ministry of Home Affairs for the salary that was due Faizal while he was on reservist training for Goldtech.
But it was rejected and Goldtech was informed that Faizal had not been called for reservist training.
An administrative staff working on behalf of Goldtech then asked Faizal for a copy of his recall order on Apr 5, 2022.
A day later, Faizal asked a troopmate if he had attended reservist on Mar 14, and asked him for his recall order. The troopmate sent it to him after censoring some details.
Faizal then used a photo-editing app to alter the name on the document to his, the period of reservist training and the issue date. However, he did not use this forged recall order.
Later that day, Faizal did a Google search for "prison sentence for forgery" and then used the same editing app to forge a genuine recall order that he had received for a previous reservist training.
He altered the font size of certain details, the period of the training and the issue date. He then sent it to Goldtech's admin staff, who forwarded it to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
MHA replied that the recall order was fake and advised the staff to lodge a police report.
The staff did not, as Goldtech wanted to give Faizal a chance, but MHA alerted the Singapore Police Force's Protective Security Command, which then lodged a police report.
Faizal was arrested on Apr 16, 2022.
The prosecution argued for a jail term of three to five months.
For forgery, an offender can be jailed up to 10 years and fined.
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