A 42-year-old man who applied for a Singapore passport using a photo of convicted match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal and later sold it to him was sentenced yesterday to 18 months' jail.

Subramaniam Sellapah had given his name and particulars for a Singapore biometric passport that bore Wilson Raj's photograph.

The travel document was found on Wilson Raj when he was arrested in Finland on April 16 last year, for travelling using a forged Singapore passport and his involvement in fixing football matches. He is now in Hungary to help police there with their match-fixing investigations.

Subramaniam became involved some time between September and October 2010, when Wilson Raj contacted a mutual friend of theirs, Raja Morgan Chelliah, to get him a second fake passport. Wilson Raj used this passport to travel to Switzerland, Hungary, Austria and South Afria - places which do not require a visa for holders of Singapore passports.

Raja Morgan had supplied his own particulars for an earlier passport - also using Wilson Raj's picture - that the latter had used to abscond from Singapore on May 30 in 2010.

Wilson Raj is known for rigging hundreds of football games across five continents, generating hundreds of millions in fradulent winings for illegal betting syndicates.

Subramaniam was fully aware that Wilson Raj had absconded during criminal proceedings, but he nonetheless furnished his particulars for the passport, even confirming that the information was true and correct on his application form. Raja Morgan received $5,000 for the passport from a middleman, and gave $2,000 to Subramaniam.

Subramaniam was convicted of selling a Singapore passport and conspiring to give false information in an application for a Singapore passport. For each of those crimes, he could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined $10,000.