Company director gets 12 weeks’ jail after duping trade union into disbursing nearly $14k
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SINGAPORE - The sole director of a consultancy firm worked together with its general manager to dupe the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) trade union into delivering nearly $14,000 in Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) grants.
Malaysian Lim De Xian, 33, from 7W Consultancy, was sentenced to 12 weeks’ jail on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to two counts of cheating. Two charges of falsification of accounts were considered during sentencing.
Lim and 33-year-old Singaporean Xu Shaowen conspired to cheat SNEF by having Xu falsely declare an inflated salary in his PCP application some time around Dec 1, 2017. This was to maximise the amount of grants 7W Consultancy could obtain.
The PCP aims to help mid-career professionals, managers, executives and technicians who are Singaporeans or permanent residents undergo skills conversion to move into new jobs. Participating firms would receive salary support and course fee funding.
The initiative was funded by Workforce Singapore (WSG) and administered by SNEF.
Lim and Xu agreed that the latter would declare a monthly salary of $5,800 in his PCP application, when in fact he earned around $1,250. Xu later submitted the PCP application form and supporting documents to SNEF via e-mail.
SNEF was duped into disbursing nearly $14,000 in total.
On May 20, 2020, a WSG officer alerted the police that 7W Consultancy had made false declarations in a PCP application.
Xu and Lim were subsequently charged in court in May 2022.
On Wednesday, Lim’s defence lawyer, Mr S.S. Dhillon, pleaded for leniency and said that Lim is remorseful.
The lawyer from Dhillon & Panoo law firm added: “He... will not run (afoul) of the law again. Lim will also treasure any second chances given to him.”
Xu was sentenced to 13 weeks’ jail in November 2022,
7W Consultancy has since made full restitution of $13,995 to WSG.
Separately, Lim and Xu also worked together to try to cheat SNEF of monies, including a salary grant of $11,760 to 7W Consultancy. However, this PCP application was withdrawn before SNEF disbursed any grants.
According to court documents, the two men and their then colleague, Chinese national Chen Xianyi, 32, entered into a conspiracy to cheat SNEF around April 11, 2018.
The court heard that Mr Chen’s monthly salary was falsely inflated to $5,600 in his PCP application. His actual salary was not disclosed in court documents. Mr Chen later asked Xu to withdraw the application.
Mr Dhillon told The Straits Times that Mr Chen has not been charged in court.
