DAVID Tan Hock Boon, 40, a former salaried lawyer of fugitive David Rasif pleaded guilty on Thursday to forgery and cheating banks into giving out wrongful housing loans.

He also cheated the Central Provident Fund Board by falsely declaring the purchase prices of properties. The court heard that Tan conceived a cashback scam along with Rasif and property agent Goh Chong Liang in 2003.

Their modus operandi: Goh would convince sellers and buyers of properties, mainly HDB flats, to declare an inflated amount above the actual agreed purchase price.

In many cases, these property buyers were not genuine. False documentation, such as CPF and employment records, were submitted to banks such as the United Overseas Bank and Standard Chartered Bank to support mortgage loan applications.

In doing so, they hoped that banks would be deceived into issuing higher mortgage loans to the 'buyers'.

They would then arranged to transfer the inflated amounts of these mortgage loans to renovation company Danis Interior Design, disguised as renovation costs.

In reality, no renovation works were ever carried out by Danis. Another man, Abu Samah Yacob, was asked to set up a bank account to receive the money for Danis.

The Commercial Affairs Department began a probe into this after it received a complaint against Goh. Tan was asked to produce documents to show his dealings.

CAD found that Goh had signed off as a witness on many Option To Purchase Forms and wanted his signatures removed to mask his involvement in the scam.

Tan conspired to replace Goh's signature and another man, Zurkifli Alang Noordin agreed to sign on the forms in return for money.

Goh was sentenced to five years and five strokes on Aug 2 last year for his offences while Zurkifli was jailed for a year in April this year. Abu was jailed 17 months in June while Rasif is still at large.

District Judge Toh Yung Cheong adjourned Tan's sentencing to Nov 14.