In an attempt to avoid getting caught by the authorities for skipping out on his national service (NS) obligations in the 1990s, a Singaporean man resorted to using several fake Malaysian passports to enter and leave Singapore.
After over 800 successful times over a period of five years, the law finally caught up to him and he was sentenced to jail.
SG man uses fake M’sian passports 876 times
According to The Straits Times (ST), Low Eng Kheng left Singapore for Malaysia in the 1990s in order to evade his duty as an operationally ready national serviceman (NSman).
Despite his Singaporean passport expiring in June 2000, Low didn’t return to Singapore and continued living in Malaysia.
In 2006, Low was looking to go to Singapore to visit his ailing mother. However, he was afraid to use his real identity as he feared being caught for evading his NS duties.
To escape law enforcement, he bought a fake Malaysian passport for RM45,000, where it used his photo but had a different name and date of birth.
Between 2008 to 2010, Low bought three more Malaysian passports for RM10,000 each. With those passports, he was able to pass various checkpoints in Singapore for 876 times between 2006 to 2011.
Caught & jailed
Eventually, Low’s luck ran out following an investigation by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) in September 2023 and was nabbed in August 2024.
During mitigation, Low’s lawyer Thomas Tham, argued that his client didn’t use the passports to commit crimes in Singapore, but for work purposes.
He came to Singapore as a driver to send people around to try to make a living for his wife and kids. The sheer number of times he used the passports was because of the nature of his job as a driver.
Low pleaded guilty to five charges under the Immigration Act and was jailed eight months and 18 weeks’ jail with effect from Aug 28, 2024.
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