Muhammad Rasul Kadir Ali submitted a forgery of his security and fire safety management diploma when applying for two jobs.
To enhance his case in one of the applications, he used his own phone numbers to impersonate his two references and offer positive comments about himself.
Wednesday, the 31-year-old Singaporean was sentenced to three weeks in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of forgery and one count of impersonation.
A human resource manager who contacted the references, noted their voices sounded like Rasul's, became concerned, and ran a check.
In 2016, Rasul desired to apply for a position as a fire safety manager, but he was aware that he would need around two years to get the necessary diploma.
Unnamed acquaintance Ravi informed Rasul that he could create such a certificate for him.
Deputy Public Prosecutor V. Jesudevan stated, "At first, the defendant was hesitant, but the thought of having to wait two years to earn the required qualification caused him to alter his mind, even though he knew what he was doing was improper."
He obtained the forged diploma and academic transcript from Ravi and Temasek Polytechnic, respectively. The DPP stated that Rasul claimed he lost communication with Ravi after that. The court did not indicate whether or whether Rasul paid for the bogus diploma.
Rasul submitted the forged diploma with his job application to SPH Retail Property Management Services on July 8, 2020.
The senior human resource manager at the company saw that the typefaces used in the document did not match those of Temasek Polytechnic.
She called the school's administrative manager, who verified that Rasul's information was not in the school's database of graduates and that the diploma had not been issued.
Rasul resubmitted the forgery on March 3, 2021, when he reapplied for employment at Serangoon Gardens Country Club.
In the application, he also included two character references, Mr. Lai Kok Wei and Mr. Azman, along with their respective phone numbers. DPP Jesudevan stated that Rasul was aware that the company's human resources person would call the references as part of its background investigations.
The human resource manager at the country club who spoke with the "referees" became suspicious and called an administrative clerk at Temasek Polytechnic to check the diploma's legitimacy.
On March 9, 2021, the clerk filed a report with the police.
For each count of using a forged document, Rasul faced up to four years in prison, a fine, or both.
For impersonation fraud, he faced up to five years in prison, a fine, or both.
In a similar example, a 49-year-old man obtained civil engineering positions at 38 businesses between 2013 and 2017 using bogus credentials, including those from National University of Singapore and Singapore Polytechnic.
In order to avoid suspicion, he worked for brief periods of time at each firm before abruptly moving on.
He was sentenced to two years and eleven months in prison and fined $1,600 in 2019.
Comments