Man jailed for forging Grab receipts, timesheets to dupe employer into disbursing over $24k

SINGAPORE — A man was sentenced to 21 weeks' jail on Nov 28 after he forged Grab receipts on more than 460 occasions and work-related timesheets in eight instances, to dupe his then employer into disbursing more than $24,000 to him.

Muhammad Fariz Shaik Sha Marican, 33, also made false medical certificates and an electronic letter purportedly from the Singapore Armed Forces, causing the Ministry of Health (MOH), where he worked as a temporary staff member, to excuse him from reporting for work.

On Nov 12, he pleaded guilty to two forgery charges, and two other similar charges were considered during sentencing.

Recruitment firm Persolkelly (PSK), which worked with MOH to provide employees, had hired Fariz, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Kelly Ng in earlier proceedings. 

In November 2021, PSK deployed him to work at MOH to support its Covid-19 operations. The ministry later checked Fariz's annual leave balance in April 2023, as it wanted to convert him to a staff member.

The prosecutor told the court: "It was then discovered that for the past few months, there had been discrepancies in the timesheets and transport claims submitted by the accused to MOH and to PSK, namely, the figures submitted to PSK were higher than that submitted to MOH."

PSK and MOH filed police reports. Investigations revealed that on 228 occasions from July 2022 to April 2023, Fariz forged Grab receipts for rides he had not taken.

He submitted the forged receipts to PSK, which disbursed more than $9,500 to him. 

On 234 occasions between December 2021 and June 2022, Fariz submitted similar false Grab receipts, duping PSK into disbursing more than $6,900 to him.

On eight occasions between July 2022 and April 2023, he made false timesheets, claiming that he had worked overtime.

He then copied and pasted the signature of a previous supervisor onto the timesheets and submitted them to PSK, duping it into disbursing more than $7,700 to him. 

In May 2023, after Fariz found out that he was being investigated for the forged documents, he wrote to MOH admitting to the offences.

He resigned and was arrested in July that year.

Fariz's bail was set at $10,000 on Nov 28, and he is expected to begin serving his sentence on Dec 9.

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.