Lawyer Jailed For Forgery, Giving False Information

Source : The Straits Times, Nov 29, 2007

LAWYER Tan Sok Ling was sentenced to a total of 11 months on Thursday for forgery and giving false information to the police.

The 40-year-old, who has been suspended from practice since March this year for breaching the Solicitors Accounts Rules, had admitted to forging a stamp duty certificate for the sale and purchase of a property by fraudulently altering the amount of stamp duty from $8,100 to $13,500, to cheat Mr Kwang Siang Jin, the buyer of a Thomson Park house, on Mar 6 last year.

Three years earlier, he lied to a police officer that he had changed his address to Bukit Timah Road when this was false.

He did this to prove that he was living within 1km from Methodist Girls' School in Blackmore Drive where he wanted to enrol his daughter. She was a Primary 4 student this year.

The court was told that he rented a place within the 1km-radius and paid a monthly rent of $1,600 for 4-1/2 months between April and August 2003.

The offence came to light when a staff of the school found out in December that year that two applicants had used the same address in the 2003 Primary 1 registration exercise.

In the forgery case, the court heard that Mr Kwang, 47, found out that he had overpaid Tan for his stamp fees after inquiring from Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore on June 7 last year.

He contacted Tan who refunded him the excess $5,400 the same day.

Three other charges - two of forgery and one of giving false information - were taken into consideration during sentencing.

Citing aggravating factors, District Judge Liew Thiam Leng said the offence involved fraud and dishonesty and there was pre-meditation.

He said Tan had abused his position of trust and his conduct undermined public trust in the legal profession, and the sentence had to deter other like-minded lawyers.

Tan could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined for forgery.

For giving false information the maximum penalty is a jail term of up to six months or a fine of up to $1,000, or both.