People's Association ex-staff, 40, submits fake expense claims of S$10,950 to gamble, gets jail

A former People's Association (PA) employee submitted false expense claims in PA's Grassroots Financial Accounting System (G-Fast) to get fast money for gambling.

According to charge sheets seen by Mothership, the employee, Soh Gim Loon, was accused of submitting false claims totalling S$14,750 between July and December 2023.

Soh's offences eventually came to light during a routine audit check in January 2025.

On Jan. 6, 2026, Soh, now 40, was sentenced to 56 weeks' jail after admitting to his crimes, reported CNA.

Acted as constituency manager

According to court documents seen by Mothership, Soh was acting as a constituency manager at the Tampines Cangkat Community Club (CC) when he committed his offences.

Besides supporting its operations, Soh was also responsible for building social cohesion around the CC by working closely with grassroots leaders and stakeholders.

He was allowed to claim through the G-Fast system for small-value expenses or purchases up to S$6,000 incurred in community events and gatherings organised by the PA.

False claim for dragonboat activity

On Jul. 9, 2023, Soh submitted a false claim for a dragonboat interest group.

The activity did not take place, but Soh labelled the expenses as "event expenses" on the G-Fast system.

He also filled out a declaration form stating that there were no official bills or receipts as part of the submission, as he did not have any receipts or proof of purchase to support the claim.

Court documents stated that Soh did so to induce the approving officers into believing that the claim was legitimate.

As Soh indicated himself as the payee in the submission, a sum of S$5,950 was later transferred to his bank account.

False claim for durian party

Three days after submitting a false claim for the dragonboat interest group, Soh submitted another such claim for a durian party that did not take place.

To avoid being questioned by the approving officers about the claim, Soh created a fake S$5,000 invoice purportedly issued to him to support his submission.

Consequently, a S$5,000 sum was transferred to his bank account.

Denied wrongdoings at first

After Soh's offences came to light in January 2025, a meeting was held with him at PA's office.

However, when Soh was confronted with the false claims, he denied that they were false and asked for time to find the receipts for those submissions.

It was only the next day that Soh admitted to the office that he had submitted false claims.

A police report was subsequently lodged against him on May 9, 2025.

Pleaded guilty

Besides the false claims, Soh was also accused of deceiving PA into transferring him S$2,850 for a National Day event and S$950 for a Christmas event.

On Jan. 6, 2026, he was sentenced to jail after pleading guilty to two of the cheating charges handed to him, reported CNA.

Another two counts of cheating were considered for his sentencing.

As of Jan. 6, Soh had not yet made any restitution.

Dismissed from PA

In response to Mothership's queries, the People's Association said it had launched an internal disciplinary investigation against Soh.

Following his admission of misconduct, PA had dismissed him from service.

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