Facing two years and six months in jail, a former company director tried to fake his own death while out on bail.

On Feb. 17, 2020, Ng Kek Wee was sentenced to an additional 1.5 years' in prison after he pleaded guilty to three offences.

These offences include:

• Abetting the provision of false information to a public servant
• Abetting the fabrication of false evidence in a judicial proceeding
• Knowingly and without reasonable excuse, failing to attend court

Appealing previous sentence

Ng, who CNA had reported as being 55, was previously a director at a firm called Singalab International.

A press release issued by the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said Ng had been sentenced to 30 months' (2.5 years) jail for misappropriating three million shares from a subsidiary of Singalab International.

He then appealed against his conviction and sentence, and was released on bail while awaiting his appeal hearing.

In this time, the court granted Ng permission to travel to China for work purposes.

CNA reported that the appeal hearing was twice pushed back on the basis of Ng's purported need to seek treatment in China for "various medical ailments".

His hearing was finally adjourned to March 15, 2019 and the State Courts directed Ng's lawyer to upload a copy of the former director's flight itinerary into the State Court's Integrated Case Management System as proof of Ng's intent to return to Singapore.

Planned to fake his death

However, Ng had actually forged his flight itinerary before handing it to his lawyer.

Unknown to the lawyer, Ng had provided false information that his return flight from China would be making a stopover in Jakarta, Indonesia before arriving in Singapore on March 13, 2019.

The faked travel itinerary coincided with the date on a forged death certificate that Ng had obtained in Indonesia.

The certificate stated that he had passed away on March 10, 2019 near Jakarta, Indonesia.

He then persuaded someone in Indonesia to email the forged death certificate to his counsel, who presented it during a Magistrate's Appeal before Judge of Appeal Tay Yong Kwang on March 15.

Subsequently, the Commerical Affairs Department, who was carrying out checks to confirm Ng's death, found that he had, in fact, travelled to Malaysia on several occasions after March 10.

He was arrested by Malaysian Police on Aug. 13 and brought back to Singapore where he was sentenced to an additional 18 months' (1.5 years) jail, according to the police.

Top image by Ali Morshedlou and Mathew MacQuarrie via Unsplash