Man fined for failing to report change of residential address

SINGAPORE - A man was fined $3,700 on Tuesday for failing to report a change of his residential address, an offence under the National Registration Act.

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said its investigations showed that Muhammad Taufiq Hidayat Kamsin, 35, had moved out of his previous residence in Canberra but failed to change his address within the stipulated 28-day window.

This was because he wanted to evade the authorities such as the Traffic Police (TP) and ICA, as he had outstanding matters with these agencies, ICA added.

ICA was alerted to this issue on April 1, 2022, by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), after auxiliary police officers engaged by URA visited Taufiq’s registered place of residence to execute an outstanding warrant of arrest, but were informed by the home owner that Taufiq was no longer residing at the unit.

The home owner also informed the officers that she did not allow Taufiq to use her address as his registered place of residence.

ICA then tried to contact Taufiq but he remained uncontactable.

He eventually surrendered himself in March 2023 at the TP headquarters to settle his outstanding matters with the agency.

ICA subsequently followed up with him to investigate his failure to report his change of address.

Under the National Registration Act, all identity card holders who change their place of residence must report the change to ICA within 28 days.

Those who fail to do so may be fined up to $5,000, or jailed for up to five years, or both.

“ICA takes a firm stance against any person who fails to comply with the National Registration Act and its regulations,” the agency said.

Singapore citizens and permanent residents can report a change of residential address online via this ICA e-Service (https://go.gov.sg/ic-address).