A 20-year-old man was unhappy with his grandfather as he spend away all of the inheritance his mother left for him, he wanted to escape from his family and start a new life and left for the Philippines.
Straits Times reported that the man was only 20-years-old when it happened, Timothy James Yeap Kim Hock was due for National service but he left the country in June 2018 a month before his enlistment date.
Returning to Singapore
The man returned to Singapore about 1 and a half years later in 2019 and he was arrested.
It was heard in court that he knew about the enlistment date but did not want to be with his family in Singapore and stayed in the southern parts of the Philippines, he also admitted that he did not want to serve his country and that was part of the reason he left.
He only returned to Singapore as he needed a clearance from the country in order to get his Philippines Citizenship and his passport expiry was due.
Yeap was fined (Apr 1) SGD$9,000 for exiting Singapore without a permit and failing to report for his national service.
The maximum penalty for not enlisting NS is a fine of up to SGD$10,000 and/or jail of up to 3 years.