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Source:
www.mom.gov.sg |
Man Gets Deterrent Jail
Sentence for Repeated Offence of Employing Foreigners Without Work
Permits |
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A motor workshop owner, Tan Kang Han, of KH Tan Motor
Workshop, was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment and fined $12,000 in court
on 17 March 2005 for employing four foreigners without valid work permits. |
He was charged and convicted for two counts under section
5(1) of the Employment of Foreign Workers Act (Chapter 91A). Tan was also
sentenced to eight months imprisonment on an CPIB charge1 .These
sentences will run consecutively. |
Illegal employment of foreigners |
On 5 August 2004, Employment Inspectors of the Ministry of
Manpower (MOM) carried out investigations at KH Tan Motor Workshop located at
51 Defu Lane 9 for possible infringement of laws relating to the employment of
foreigners. |
Investigations revealed that Tan had employed four
foreigners as spray-painters at his workshop without obtaining valid work
permits to do so. |
Further investigations also revealed that Tan employed the
foreigners to work for him despite knowing that they were here only on Social
Visit Passes, which prohibits them from engaging in any form of employment. |
This is the fourth time that Tan has been charged in court
for illegal employment of foreigners without work permits. Details of his
three previous convictions prosecuted by MOM between 1994 and 1999 for 17
charges of illegal employment are attached at Annex. |
In view of Tan’s recalcitrance in flouting the employment
laws repeatedly by employing foreigners without work permits, MOM has pressed
for a deterrent custodial sentence against him. |
The Court has ruled that the two MOM charges imposed at 6
months each run consecutively. Tan was thus sentenced to a deterrent jail
sentence of one year. |
MOM would like to remind employers to obtain the requisite
approval to employ foreigners. Any person caught employing foreigners without
valid work permits will be charged in court. |
The first-time offender faces a minimum fine equivalent to
two years of the foreign worker levy and a maximum fine up to four years’ levy
for each foreign worker, or imprisonment of up to one year, or both. |
For the second and subsequent conviction, the penalty will
be a mandatory jail sentence of one to 12 months in addition to the above
fines. |
More..... |
1On 13 Aug
2004, Tan had corruptly offered a gratification of $5,000 to one Yip Chew Peng
to come to MOM and impersonate as Tan and accept criminal responsibility on
his behalf. The CPIB charge runs consecutively with the MOM charges. Tan was
sentenced to a total of 20 months imprisonment and $12,000. |
Source:
Ministry of Manpower Press Release 24 Mar
2005 |