52-year-old Singaporean Amran Abdul Sattar pleaded guilty to 8 charges under the Immigration Act and was sentenced to 22 weeks imprisonment on 20 April, according to The Straits Times.

He had moved to Indonesia to start a new life and overstayed there, before assuming a different identity and got himself 2 Indonesian passports, using them to travel to Singapore several times from 2007 to 2016.

He had last used his own Singapore passport back on 28 December 2004 when he left Singapore for Indonesia to work as a translator, staying there for about 2 months before realising that he had overstayed in the country.

However, he didn’t go to the authorities for help because he was afraid of being arrested for overstaying in Indonesia, and on top of that, he had also lost his Singapore passport as well.

Amran then asked a friend to help him out and get an Indonesian identity card under the name of “Indra Shahdan” so that he could continue staying in Indonesia without any consequences.

He paid 5 million rupiahs for the passport in 2007, with the passport bearing his own photo but had the particulars of “Indra Shahdan”.

It was not revealed if this “Indra Shahdan” is real or if he actually exists, and about Amran’s friend and how he managed to get the passport and identity card.

Amran use the Indonesian passport that he had bought to travel in and out of Singapore in 2007 and 2008, before forking out 350,000 rupiahs in 2016 to buy a second Indonesian passport that had his own photo but bearing the particulars of this “Indra Shahdan”.

He claimed that he had the necessary documents to apply for an Indonesian passport because he had gotten married to an Indonesian woman in June 2008, with the documents including a marriage certificate and an Indonesian identity card.

Amran used his second Indonesian passport on 16 February 2016 and showed it to an immigration officer at the Singapore Cruise Centre.

He claimed to be Indra on his disembarkation form and that he had never used a passport under a different name to enter Singapore and the immigration officer then unsuspectingly granted him a 30-day visit pass.

Later that year, he went on to commit similar offences at the Singapore Cruise Centre.

It was not made known how his crimes were found out, but he was eventually arrested at a Chai Chee flat near Bedok North on 15 March last month by officers from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority.

23-year-old Tuan Siti Aishah, was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment after pleading guilty on 19 April to one count of penetrating a minor under the age of 16, according to The Straits Times.

The victim cannot be identified because of a court order protecting her identity.

She also pleaded guilty to two counts of theft for stealing alcohol from a convenience store in Yishun and was sentenced to 2 weeks imprisonment for those offences as well.

What happened?

On 12 September 2022 at about 4pm, Tuan met up with the 15-year-old victim at the latter’s void deck with 2 other friends to drink alcohol.

Tuan got drunk at about 11pm and the victim then brought her to her flat to rest.

The victim offered Tuan the bottom bunk of a double decker bed at her home, with her mother sleeping on the upper bunk, but the woman asked to sleep on a mattress on the floor instead.

The victim then pulled out a mattress and proceeded to lie down on it with Tuan behind her, and the latter then placed her arms around the girl and cuddled with her, before penetrating her without warning and kissing her on her cheek.

She later penetrated the victim again and the girl then got up from the mattress and move to the bottom bunk of the double decker bed instead, with the woman remaining on the mattress on the floor.

Later that month, the victim then told her form teacher about the incident and a police report was then lodged.

Stole alcohol

In a separate incident on 24 December 2021, Tuan was with two 17-year-old girls and stole alcohol from a convenience store in Yishun.

The group entered the store and Tuan encouraged them to steal a bottle of vodka, before she later returned and stole another bottle of vodka.

A 28-year-old woman allegedly threw a wooden side table down from her HDB flat at Choa Chu Kang, and was charged in court yesterday (20 April) for her offence of committing a rash act.

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) issued a press release on the incident, and said that they had received a call for help on 18 April at about 10.45 am at Block 818A Choa Chu Kang Avenue 1.

Police officers from the Jurong Police Division then followed up with their investigations and managed to establish that the woman had allegedly thrown a wooden side table down from her residential unit at Choa Chu Kang.

However, it is not made known from which floor she threw the wooden table down from.

If found guilty of committing a rash act under Section 336(a) of the Penal Code 1871, the woman faces a possible jail term of up to 6 months and/or a fine of up to $2,500.

The Singapore Police Force reiterated their stance against such actions and highlighted that they have zero tolerance for acts that endanger the lives or safety of others, and that they will not hesitate to take action against those who disregard and flout the law.

Singapore Police Force’s press release

WOMAN TO BE CHARGED FOR RASH ACT

The Police will be charging a 28-year-old woman for her suspected involvement in a case of rash act.

On 18 April 2023 at about 10.45am, the Police received a call for assistance at Block 818A Choa Chu Kang Avenue 1. Through follow-up investigations, officers from Jurong Police Division established that the woman had allegedly thrown a wooden side table down from her residential unit at the location.

The woman will be charged in court on 20 April 2023 with rash act, punishable under Section 336(a) of the Penal Code 1871. The offence carries an imprisonment term of up to six months, or a fine of up to $2,500, or both.

The Police have zero tolerance against acts that endanger the lives or safety of others and will not hesitate to take action against those who blatantly disregard the law.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
19 April 2023 @ 10:48 PM

MISSING PERSON-TURNED-VICTIM OF A CHINA OFFICIAL IMPERSONATION SCAM TRACED BY POLICE WITHIN SIX HOURS

On 17 April 2023, the Police received a report that a 19-year-old woman (“the victim”) had allegedly been kidnapped. Prior to the report, the victim’s parents, who were based in China, received a video of the victim clad in torn clothing with her hands tied. The video was accompanied with a ransom demand from an unknown person communicating in Mandarin. The victim’s parents contacted the teacher based in Singapore, who in turn reported the incident to the Police.

Following the report, officers from Clementi Police Division, Criminal Investigation Department, Police Intelligence Department and Commercial Affairs Department conducted extensive follow-up investigations and tracked down the victim within six hours at Woodlands Checkpoint. She was subsequently established to be a victim of a China Official Impersonation Scam.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the victim had received an unsolicited call sometime in early April 2023, purportedly from an Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer. The scammer alleged that the victim had spread false news on COVID-19 in Guangzhou, China. The victim was then routed to another scammer who masqueraded as the “China Police” for investigations. As part of the purported ongoing investigations, the victim was made to report to the “China Police” in real time through continuous video calls 24/7 over a messaging application on her mobile phone.

The scammer further told the victim that she might be deported back to her home country to face prosecution if she was unable to furnish the bail amount. Under such ruse, the victim was requested to furnish RMB 1,000,000 as “bail”. The victim could not raise the bail amount. Consequently, she was told to record and provide obscene videos of herself to prove her innocence for a separate criminal case. The victim complied out of fear and in her confused state.

Sometime on 17 April 2023, the scammer instructed the victim to isolate herself and cease communication with others, to facilitate their investigations. The scammer instructed the victim to take a video recording of herself with her hands tied up to pretend that she had been captured. The victim was also told that the video would be used for their investigations to lure and arrest other syndicate members.

Unbeknownst to the victim, the scammers sent threats using the victim’s self-recorded video to her parents. Pursuant to the police report, the Police responded swiftly and tracked down the victim. Police investigations into the case are ongoing.

The Police would like to highlight that overseas law enforcement agencies have no jurisdiction to conduct operations in Singapore, arrest anyone or ask members of the public to help with any form of investigations without the approval of the Singapore Government. The Police take a serious view against any person who may be involved in scams, whether knowingly or unwittingly, and they will be dealt with firmly, in accordance with the law.

The Police would like to advise members of the public to adopt the following precautionary measures:

1. ADD – ScamShield App and set security features (e.g., enable two-factor (2FA) or multifactor authentication for banks, social media, Singpass accounts; set transaction limits on internet banking transactions). Do not send or transfer money to anyone whom you do not know or have not met in person before.
2. CHECK – For scam signs and with official sources (e.g., visit www.scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Helpline on 1800-722-6688).
   Beware of phone calls from unknown numbers (with or without the “+” prefix) and refrain from giving out personal information and bank details to callers over the phone. Government agencies will not ask for your bank account usernames and passwords.
3. TELL – Inform the authorities, family, and friends about scams and do not be pressured by the caller to act impulsively. Report any fraudulent transactions to your bank immediately.

If you have any information relating to such crimes or if you are in doubt, please call the Police Hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. All information will be kept strictly confidential. If you require urgent Police assistance, please dial ‘999’.

For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Helpline at 1800-722-6688. Fighting scams is a community effort. Together, we can ACT Against Scams to safeguard our community!

PUBLIC AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
19 April 2023 @ 12:25 PM