42-year-old Goh Chyi Chen, pleaded guilty to one count of forgery, with another count of attempting to cheat the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) being considered during her sentencing.
She was sentenced to 5 weeks imprisonment on 29 August for forging a retrenchment letter to apply for the Covid-19 Support Grant, which provided cash grants of up to $800 for 3 months.
Goh worked as a senior retail executive with Rigel Telecom, where she was fired in May 2020 for poor performance at work, and the reasons for her retrenchment (which was stated in a letter issued by the company) were not related to the pandemic.
What happened?
Goh submitted an online application for the grant on 1 October 2020, attaching a forged retrenchment letter to her application.
She edited the contents of the letter and deleted all the reasons for her termination, stating instead that she was retrenched due to the pandemic.
An MSF officer contacted her former company on 12 October to verify the contents of the letter and found out that the letter was not issued by the company.
The officer then contacted Goh, who maintained her claim that she was retrenched due to the pandemic – he application was eventually rejected.