The Police have arrested two Singaporean men, aged 33 and 40, and a 46-year-old Singaporean woman, for conspiracy to cheat, for their alleged involvement in submitting false vaccination status to the Ministry of Health (MOH). A further eight persons are under investigation for their suspected involvement in this conspiracy.
On 21 January 2022, the Police received a report from MOH informing of their investigations into a registered medical practitioner for an offence under the Infectious Diseases (Antigen Rapid Test Providers) Regulations 2021, and suspected submission of false information to the National Immunisation Registry to indicate that he had administered COVID-19 vaccines to individuals when in fact he had not. The Police took immediate action to investigate the report and arrested the two men and one woman on the same day.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the two men, one of whom was the medical practitioner and the other, his assistant, had allegedly engaged in a conspiracy to cheat MOH by submitting the aforesaid false information with the intention to induce MOH to issue the Certificate of Vaccination against COVID-19 in the TraceTogether application. The 46-year-old woman, the founder of a group known as “Healing the Divide” (HTD), had allegedly referred clients, believed to be members of HTD, to the medical practitioner and had also suggested administering something in lieu of the vaccine to patients. The woman is also currently under investigation for an alleged offence of abetment by instigation of persons to obstruct public servants in the discharge of their public functions under Section 186, read with Section 117 of the Penal Code, for her alleged involvement in instigating others to call and overwhelm COVID-19 public hotlines.
The two men were each charged on 21 January 2022 with an offence of abetment by conspiracy to cheat under Section 417 read with Section 109 of the Penal Code 1871. The woman will be charged in court on 23 January 2022 with an offence of criminal conspiracy to cheat under Section 417 read with Section 120B of the Penal Code 1871. The two men have been remanded for further investigations.
The offences of abetment by conspiracy to cheat and criminal conspiracy to cheat are both punishable with imprisonment for a term of up to three years, or fine, or both.
The Police take a very serious view of conduct which may pose a public health risk amid the national fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Offenders will be dealt with sternly, in accordance with the law.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
23 January 2022 @ 8:00 AM