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Response to "How did $2m cheat get passport?" (Straits Times, 13 June 2008)
How cheat got a new passport
17 June 2008
Straits Times
(c) 2008 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
[by]Lim Jing Jing (Ms) Deputy Head, Public & Internal Communications Immigration & Checkpoints Authority
Audrey Ang (Ms) Assistant Director, Media Relations Singapore Police Force[/by]
WE REFER to last Friday's letter by Mr David Han, 'How did $2m cheat get passport?'. Ng Ting Hwa was not placed on the immigration stop list.
At that time, he was not charged with any offence but was under investigation for a suspected offence of criminal breach of trust as a servant. He had, in fact, voluntarily surrendered his passport to the police.
He subsequently decided to obtain a new passport from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority by making a false statutory declaration. He used this new passport to exit Singapore. He was not stopped by immigration officers at the checkpoint because the passport he held was a genuine and valid Singapore passport.
Making a false statutory declaration is a serious offence. For this, he has been convicted and sentenced to a jail term of two years.
How did $2m cheat get passport?
13 June 2008
Straits Times
(c) 2008 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
I REFER to the article, '$2m cheat blows it all on gambling' (ST, June 10).
I wonder if there was a security lapse that allowed offender Ng Ting Hwa to leave the country.
The police had kept his passport, so how did he persuade the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) to issue him a new one?
Was due diligence exercised before his application was approved? Why was his status not captured in the ICA system when he left the country?
On the part of the police, what was done to ensure that he could not apply for a new passport to leave the country legally?
Each new machine-readable passport has a different number, unlike the old passport which used one's identity card number. Was this the disconnect between the police and ICA?
David Han
17 June 2008
Straits Times
(c) 2008 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
[by]Lim Jing Jing (Ms) Deputy Head, Public & Internal Communications Immigration & Checkpoints Authority
Audrey Ang (Ms) Assistant Director, Media Relations Singapore Police Force[/by]
WE REFER to last Friday's letter by Mr David Han, 'How did $2m cheat get passport?'. Ng Ting Hwa was not placed on the immigration stop list.
At that time, he was not charged with any offence but was under investigation for a suspected offence of criminal breach of trust as a servant. He had, in fact, voluntarily surrendered his passport to the police.
He subsequently decided to obtain a new passport from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority by making a false statutory declaration. He used this new passport to exit Singapore. He was not stopped by immigration officers at the checkpoint because the passport he held was a genuine and valid Singapore passport.
Making a false statutory declaration is a serious offence. For this, he has been convicted and sentenced to a jail term of two years.
How did $2m cheat get passport?
13 June 2008
Straits Times
(c) 2008 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
I REFER to the article, '$2m cheat blows it all on gambling' (ST, June 10).
I wonder if there was a security lapse that allowed offender Ng Ting Hwa to leave the country.
The police had kept his passport, so how did he persuade the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) to issue him a new one?
Was due diligence exercised before his application was approved? Why was his status not captured in the ICA system when he left the country?
On the part of the police, what was done to ensure that he could not apply for a new passport to leave the country legally?
Each new machine-readable passport has a different number, unlike the old passport which used one's identity card number. Was this the disconnect between the police and ICA?
David Han