Trio linked to spa admit roles in ruses to get Covid-19 grants

SINGAPORE - After the pandemic hit, two former employees of a spa falsely claimed that their jobs there had been affected and received $500 each from a government grant.

On Tuesday, Joey Yeo, 29, and Danny Ho Wai Hong, 31, pleaded guilty to a charge each of cheating and furnishing false information to a public servant.

A third person, Loo Yi Ming, 31, who had signed off on fraudulent documents to help the spa obtain another grant, pleaded guilty to a charge of falsification of accounts.

The spa’s director Deidrea Tan Zhong Lin, 31, was sentenced to seven weeks’ jail for her role in the offences. The case against its operations manager Gay Kah Leong, 31, who is Tan’s husband, is ongoing.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tay Jia En said that in 2018 or 2019, Yeo came to an agreement with the management of Kings Spa that she would continue as a “phantom employee” after she indicated her wish to stop working.

This meant the spa would continue to make Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions to her.

A similar arrangement was made between Ho and Gay in August 2018. Ho, who began working for the spa as a receptionist on July 1, 2018, had stopped working there the following month, but was told by Gay that the spa would make CPF contributions to him as a “phantom employee” so that it could continue to hire foreign workers.

From June 2019 to August 2020, Yeo and Ho received monthly CPF contributions from the spa despite not working there, with Yeo receiving no less than $7,326 and Ho receiving no less than $5,809 in total.

In order to maintain the facade that they were genuine employees, they also signed off on falsified payslips.

In her application for the Temporary Relief Fund, Yeo falsely declared she had lost her job due to Covid-19 and that her gross monthly income before Jan 23, 2020, was $1,000. She later admitted that this amount was based on the CPF contributions she was receiving from Kings Spa as a phantom employee.

Ho lied in his application that he had lost at least 30 per cent of his income. He claimed that his gross monthly income before Jan 23, 2020, was $1,500 – which included $1,300 in salary from Kings Spa – and that it had fallen to $800.

“Danny admitted that he had to ‘anyhow put in’ this amount so that it would show that he had lost at least 30 per cent of his personal income,” said DPP Tay.

Meanwhile, in order to obtain a payout under the Jobs Support Scheme (JSS), which was aimed at providing wage support to employers and helping enterprises retain their local staff, Gay is said to have intentionally submitted fraudulent documents on Aug 10, 2020, to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) for a self-review.

To prevent and detect abuse of the scheme, Iras implemented a framework for the JSS in June 2020 that identified employers with a higher risk profile and asked them to conduct a self-review by making a declaration and providing supporting documents to substantiate their eligibility.

Loo, who was working as an account manager at another firm, signed off on the falsified documents. Iras reviewed the application but did not disburse the payout to Kings Spa.

Also as part of the self-review, Iras officers contacted Ho and Yeo about their employment statuses. They lied and said they did not illegally receive CPF contributions and that they were currently employed by the spa.

On Sept 28, 2020, a police report was lodged by an Iras officer.

The trio will return to court on Dec 2 for sentencing.