Man jailed over SkillsFuture scam
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A 29-year-old man was the sixth person to be sentenced to jail yesterday over a cashback scam involving SkillsFuture credits.
He was also involved in a second ruse linked to a government scheme to help small and medium-sized enterprises upgrade their business capabilities.
Sng Kee Jin was sentenced to 44 weeks' jail over his role in the scams that caused Spring Singapore and the now-defunct Workforce Development Agency (WDA) to suffer a total of more than $60,000 in losses.
Sng pleaded guilty to nine charges of engaging in a conspiracy to cheat them.
Of the total losses to WDA - now known as SkillsFuture Singapore - $20,000 was attributable to the claims linked to Sng.
Spring Singapore suffered another $10,000 in losses arising from the Singaporean's charges. Sng has since given a total of $6,000 in restitution to the two agencies.
Five other men linked to the ruses have been dealt with in court and were earlier given jail sentences. They are: Lim Biao, Chia Bing Lun, Tay Sheng Yang, Ng Yong Jing and Muhammad Hakimmul Hisham Razni. The men were then aged between 27 and 35.
The SkillsFuture Credits (SFC) scheme was launched in January 2016.
Between February and March 2016, the WDA approved funding under the SFC scheme for four courses conducted by two companies - A.I. Industries and Alliance Continens.
Training providers under the scheme were not allowed to pay trainees from the disbursed funds or enter into such agreements. In April 2016, a company known as C.G. Marketing (CGM) was formed with the sole purpose of promoting courses offered by A.I. Industries and Alliance Continens.
To entice people to sign up for A.I. Industries courses, Sng, who was a CGM salesman, gave trainees a cashback of at least $50 for every course they signed up for. As a result, WDA was induced into delivering $250 to A.I. Industries for each claim made.
Separately, Sng was also involved in another cashback scheme in 2016 linked to Spring Singapore. It had been duped into disbursing $10,000 in total.
