On 18 August 2023, Liu Mei Ying (“Liu”) was sentenced to 27 months’ imprisonment for her role in defrauding the then-Workforce Development Agency (WDA), in relation to then-WDA’s Funding for Employer-Based Training (“the Funding Scheme”). She was earlier convicted on 3 July 2023 on 27 fraud-related charges after a trial.
The Funding Scheme had encouraged employers to upgrade their employees’ skills by helping to defray their costs. Under the Funding Scheme, companies and registered businesses (“Applicant Companies”) could apply online for training grants to fund their employees’ participation in courses run by approved training providers. The training grants comprised of two components: (i) the absentee payroll grant, which was paid to Applicant Companies to defray their manpower costs when sending employees to attend the courses; and (ii) the course fee grant, which was paid to the training providers. For WDA to disburse any grant, the trainee must complete 75% of the required course attendance. For WDA to disburse the absentee payroll grant, the trainee must be an employee of the Applicant Company for the entire course duration. No training grant would be disbursed if any false information was submitted to WDA for the training grants.
Liu was the sole director and shareholder of two training providers: Derma Floral Beauty Academy Pte Ltd (DFBA) and Derma Floral Beauty Pte Ltd (DFB), as well as the sole proprietor of Beaux Ex Bellus Trading (BEBT), collectively referred to as “Derma Floral Group”.
Between December 2011 and July 2013, Liu instigated her employee, Lau Pin Lin (“Lau”), to perpetuate a series of fraud in relation to the Funding Scheme. In particular, she instigated Lau to:
- Deceive WDA into disbursing $62,983.77 in training grants to Derma Floral Group and two Applicant Companies that sent their employees for training at Derma Floral Group, by submitting false information about Derma Floral Group’s trainees to WDA online; and
- Conceal the fraud by creating sham documents and submitting some of these sham documents to WDA during its audit of the training grants disbursed to Derma Floral Group.
The sentences imposed by the State Courts are as follows:
| Section | No. of Charges | Details of Charges | Sentences |
| Section 4(1) punishable under Section 4(3) read with Section 10(1) of the Computer Misuse Act | 14 | Instigating Lau Pin Lin to: (a) access a computer with intent to cheat WDA into disbursing training grants by making six online submissions to WDA, falsely stating that four trainees of courses conducted by Derma Floral Group were employees of DFB or BEBT for the full duration of their courses (b) access a computer with intent to cheat WDA into disbursing training grants by making eight online submissions to WDA, falsely stating that six trainees of eight courses conducted by Derma Floral Group had attended at least 75% of their respective course hours for these eight courses |
Between six weeks and nine months’ imprisonment each for 11 charges (concurrently) |
| Section 477A read with Section 109 of the Penal Code | 5 | Instigating Lau Pin Lin to falsify five receipts falsely stating that they were receipts for two Derma Floral Group trainees’ payments to BEBT for facial treatments rendered to them, when the payments were made to Derma Floral Group to make employer contributions to their Central Provident Fund (CPF) accounts to create the false impression that they were employees of Derma Floral Group during their courses Three months’ imprisonment for each of two charges (consecutive) | Three months imprisonment for each of three charges (concurrent) |
| Section 417 read with Section 109 of the Penal Code | 8 | Instigating Lau Pin Lin to cheat WDA into consenting to DFB and DFBA retaining the training grants earlier disbursed to them, by submitting eight sets of attendance records to WDA falsely showing that two trainees had attended at least 75% of the course attendance for two courses | Five months’ imprisonment for one charge (consecutive) Between three months’ and six months’ imprisonment each for seven charges (concurrently) |
| Global sentence |
27 months’ imprisonment* | ||
* Liu has filed a notice of appeal against the conviction and sentence.
Lau was convicted on 23 August 2019 after pleading guilty to her offences in this series of fraud. On 13 September 2019, she was sentenced to 12 weeks’ imprisonment.
The Police treat the abuse of government grants seriously and will not hesitate to take action against such offenders. Offenders will be dealt with firmly in accordance with the law.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
19 August 2023 @ 7:30 AM