SINGAPORE - A man gave his friend forged payslips, which were later used to unlawfully obtain a loan of nearly $13,000 from Citibank.

Ng Jia Hao, 26, was sentenced to nine months' jail on Wednesday (Aug 31) after he admitted to engaging in a conspiracy with at least three other men to cheat the bank.

Two of his accomplices have been dealt with in court.

One of them, Kurumoorthy Chandran, also known as Kelvin, was a contract worker at Citibank at the time of the offences. He was sentenced to a year's jail in July.

In an earlier statement, the bank said he had not been working on Citibank-related matters since 2019.

The second accomplice was Ng's friend, Eugene Yap Siang, 28, who was sentenced to eight months' jail on Aug 8.

The case involving a third man, Noah Loo Yu Hong, 28, is pending.

Between September and October 2018, Citibank received and approved about 20 loan applications that were later found to contain forged income documents.

Ng is the latest offender linked to the scam to be dealt with in court.

On Monday, Kiran Kaur, 29, was sentenced to six months' jail over her role in the ruse.

For the current case, Deputy Public Prosecutor Foong Ke Hui said Ng told Yap in 2018 that he could help him obtain a bank loan even if he did not meet the minimum income requirement.

Ng also asked Yap if he had any friends who would be interested. He offered Yap a commission if he managed to get his friends to obtain such loans.

On Sept 14 that year, Yap sent Loo a text message to ask if he would be interested in getting a bank loan. Loo agreed and gave Yap his full name to forward to Ng.

Some time before Sept 26, 2018, Ng obtained two forged payslips from an unknown person and handed them to Yap.

The payslips stated that Loo was working for another bank, with a salary of $6,350 for August and September that year.

DPP Foong said: "The accused told Eugene to hand the forged payslips to Noah. He also told Eugene to advise Noah to take the forged payslips and use them to apply for a loan from Citibank at the Ion Orchard branch.

"The accused told Eugene to advise Noah to look for an... officer at that branch named Kelvin."

After receiving the information from Yap, Loo went to Citibank's Ion Orchard branch and gave the forged payslips to Kurumoorthy, who helped him fill up a Citibank loan application form.

The application, dated Sept 26, 2018, was submitted to Citibank, which was duped into approving a loan of nearly $13,000.

DPP Foong said Ng then informed Loo to collect the loan amount from Citibank's MacDonald House branch and meet him.

Loo also agreed to give Ng 25 per cent of the loan amount.

After collecting the money on Sept 27, 2018, Loo met Ng nearby and gave him around $2,000. Loo also gave Yap $1,100, the court heard.

Loo has since made full restitution to Citibank.

Ng's bail was set at $10,000 on Wednesday and he is expected to surrender himself at the State Courts on Sept 5 to begin serving his sentence.