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SINGAPORE: A woman who was “blinded by love” helped her head of a student care center trick the government out of student tuition subsidies and lied to help him get financial aid for her mother.
Daljit Kaur Yinder Singh, 50, was jailed for four months on Wednesday (October 14) for her crimes.
He pleaded guilty to three counts of making false entries with the intention of defrauding the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), participating in a conspiracy to provide false information to MSF, and inciting his co-defendant to defraud MSF. Two other charges were considered.
The court heard that Daljit was a center supervisor at Welcare Student Care Center from 2002 to June 2015, working under co-defendant Gerard Michael, who owned the center. Supervised the children and contacted parents on the government funded student care fee assistance plan.
Student care centers under the scheme must send withdrawal forms to MSF if parents remove their children from the center, so the ministry would stop disbursement and collect any reimbursement for excess funds.
Michael instructed Daljit not to send forms for the withdrawing children, and also told him to make false entries in the attendance books and prepare the supporting documents so that it would appear that the children were still attending the center.
She did not inform MSF about the withdrawals of 12 children, and MSF disbursed subsidies in excess of S $ 13,630 to Welcare between January 2015 and May 2015.
The center made a total of S $ 48,280 in illegal claims between 2014 and 2016. Of this, S $ 29,410 of losses caused to MSF were due to Daljit’s conspiracy with Michael. Welcare has returned S $ 28,762 to MSF and S $ 19,518 remains outstanding.
LIED TO HELP HER MOTHER GET FINANCIAL AID
Furthermore, Michael also instructed Daljit to apply for ComCare for his mother in January 2015. ComCare is a government financial assistance plan for households in need.
Following Michael’s instructions, Daljit went to a social services office in Ang Mo Kio with Michael’s mother and lied to the officer that his mother was unemployed and did not have the financial support of her children.
MSF approved the application and helped Michael’s mother pay rent and upkeep for six months. He also credited S $ 340 a month to his bank account and gave him a medical assistance card.
Daljit’s attorney said his client has indicated that she is willing to be a prosecution witness against Michael at his trial, saying that she was “a mere pawn” used by him. The crimes were committed at a low point in her life when she was “blinded by love” for Michael, the attorney said.
The judge agreed that Daljit was not the mastermind, but said that he should not have followed the instructions given.
