This is no tale of courage and adventure of an English naval officer who outwitted and outfought his foes, but the sorry tale of a Singaporean male forger and his runner whose partner-'ship' was sunk by the heavy cannons of Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA). On 2 Dec 2003 at about 0915 hours, ICA officers conducted a check on a male Myanmar national at a bus stop along Ang Mo Kio Ave 10. A body search was conducted on the 27-year old male and three forged documents - two Student's Passes and one Employment Pass were found in his waistpouch. The Myanmar national had no valid travel document and revealed that he was a runner for a male Singaporean who handed him the forged documents.

2 The Myanmar national revealed the identity of the Singaporean man that he was working for and our officers managed to track him down and arrest him along Olive Road. The 45-year-old Singaporean man admitted that he was the forger and had passed the forged documents to the Myanmar national to sell. Further investigation revealed that he would charge $70 for each forged document. The Singaporean man then led the ICA officers to a flat at Geylang Bahru where the following equipment used for the forgery were recovered:
a) One personal computer set;
b) One colour printer; and
c) One piece of 3.5" diskette storing templates of the forged cards

3 Preliminary investigation revealed that the 45 year-old Singaporean was involved in the provision of forged endorsements to Myanmar national immigration offenders through his Myanmar national runner. Both the Singaporean man and the Myanmar national were referred to the Police for further investigation.

4 The Singapore authorities take a serious view of attempts to forge immigration cards and other related documents. For forgery of passes or in possession of forged passes, the offender faces an imprisonment for a term of up to 7 years and shall also be liable to a fine.


END OF NEWS RELEASE

Immigration & Checkpoints Authority
3 Dec 03