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36-year-old Lim Jian Rong Gerard was charged in court on Mar. 2 with offences of cheating, forgery, and falsification of accounts.

Lim is the principal and sole proprietor of Success.Nat Tutorial Centre (Success.Nat).

The charges were related to grant applications made under the SGUnited Traineeships Programme (SGUT), managed by the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), a programme partner appointed by Workforce Singapore.

SGUT provided fresh graduates from the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), polytechnics, universities and other educational institutions with traineeship opportunities with host organisations and help them develop industry-relevant skills during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Host organisations that took on trainees would receive government funding for the training allowance provided to trainees.

Submitted fraudulent claims under SGUT

According to the police news release, between Oct. 2020 and Jun. 2021, Lim had allegedly cheated SBF into disbursing grants amounting to more than S$126,000 through the submission of fraudulent claims under the SGUT.

He allegedly forged the signatures of seven purported trainees on training agreements and monthly development plans.

Lim had also allegedly falsified monthly payslips to show SBF that the purported trainees had received training and training allowances from Success.Nat.

Consequences

The Police said that if convicted, Lim faces the following punishments:

• For the charges of cheating under Section 420 of the Penal Code, imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years and a fine
• For the charges of forgery for the purpose of cheating under Section 468 of the Penal Code, imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years and a fine
• For the charges of falsification of accounts under Section 477A of the Penal Code, imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years, a fine, or both.

The Police said that they take a serious stance against the abuse of Government grants. Offenders will be dealt with severely in accordance with the law.

Top photo via Unsplash and SGUnited website