SINGAPORE: A man has duped his employer into paying him $24,000 through a series of fraudulent expense claims, the Straits Times reported on Tuesday (Nov 12).
The 33-year-old man, Muhammad Fariz Shaik Sha Marican, is said to have forged Grab receipts for rides he never took, changing the dates and times on real receipts to make it look like he completed those trips.
Between July 2022 and April 2023, he submitted 228 fake Grab receipts, collecting $9,526.60.
He also made similar false claims between December 2021 and June 2022, duping the company out of over $6,900 with 234 fake receipts.
Moreover, Fariz submitted false timesheets between July 2022 and April 2023.
He inflated his work hours in eight separate instances, claiming overtime pay of $7,700. He even forged a former supervisor’s signature to make it look legitimate.
In addition to the fake receipts and timesheets, Fariz also created false medical certificates and an electronic letter supposedly from the Singapore Armed Forces to excuse him from reporting to work on certain days.
How the crime was discovered
Fariz worked for a recruitment firm, PersolKelly (PSK), and was assigned to the Ministry of Health (MOH) to help with Covid-19 operations.
He was a temporary staff member there, and the ministry had plans to make him permanent in April 2023.
However, when MOH checked his annual leave balance as part of the process of converting him to full-time, they spotted some issues with his timesheets and transport claims.
They discovered that the amounts Fariz submitted to PSK were higher than what he had reported to MOH, as Deputy Public Prosecutor Kelly Ng explained.
After learning in May 2023 that his claims were being investigated, Fariz confessed to the fraud in a letter to MOH. He has since pleaded guilty to two forgery charges.
Prosecutor requests jail sentence of six to eight months
Deputy Public Prosecutor Kelly Ng has requested a jail sentence of six to eight months for Fariz, arguing that he committed fraud over 18 months and had several chances to stop but chose not to.
In Fariz’s defence, lawyer Derek Tan asserted that his client is a first-time offender and has fully reimbursed PSK for the fraudulent claims.
Mr Tan further clarified that Fariz “did not spend the money on personal items and did not commit the acts for financial gain.”
However, the presiding judge, Christopher Goh, noted that the fraud still counts as being done for financial gain, regardless of whether the funds were spent.
Sentencing has been postponed to Nov 28 for further deliberation.
“That’s some next-level dedication… to slacking!”
Netizens on social media reacted to the article, with some saying that Fariz had taken ‘laziness’ to a whole new level.
One netizen quipped, “Whoa, fake MCs and an official-looking SAF letter just to get out of work? That’s some next-level dedication… to slacking! Wonder what he thought the endgame was.”
Another said, “The irony of him using fake MCs to cheat his employer, Ministry of Health, of all people.”
A third remarked, “Very smart guy but used in the wrong way. Can duped MOH and his employment agency for 18 months.”
Featured image by Depositphotos (for illustration purposes only)