A man who forged his girlfriend’s old marriage certificate to retain his Housing & Development Board (HDB) flat has been jailed for six months.
Muhammad Faizal, 37, pleaded guilty to one count of forgery for the purpose of cheating.
He edited an electronic copy of his girlfriend’s marriage certificate with her ex-husband and submitted the fake document to HDB in an attempt to continue renting his flat, reports Shin Min Daily News.
According to court documents, Faizal had previously lived in a one-room HDB rental flat with his former wife before they divorced in Dec 2021.
Following the divorce, his ex-wife moved out and was removed from the tenancy agreement.
Source: Kameleon0077 on Canva, for illustration purposes only.
HDB later informed Faizal that he needed to prove he was married to remain eligible to rent the flat.
Otherwise, he would have to add a co-applicant under the Joint Singles Scheme.
As he did not meet the eligibility requirements, HDB issued a notice on 24 July 2023 requiring him to vacate the flat.
On 5 Sept 2023, Faizal applied to add his girlfriend and her daughter as occupiers of the flat.
He claimed that he and his partner were married. However, the 37-year-old could not provide a marriage certificate.
Later that day, Faizal accessed his girlfriend’s phone without permission and found a digital copy of her marriage certificate from her previous marriage.
He sent the document to himself before editing it to change the groom’s name, NRIC number and marriage date.
The next day, he emailed the altered certificate to HDB.
The forged document was not discovered until Oct 2024, when Faizal’s girlfriend separately applied for an HDB rental flat as a divorcee and declared that she had custody of her daughter.
This prompted further checks, which found that the marriage certificate submitted by Faizal was almost identical to the original document belonging to his girlfriend and her ex-husband.
Investigators found that only the groom’s details and marriage date had been changed.
The forged certificate stated that Faizal and his girlfriend had married on 25 May 2023. However, his girlfriend’s divorce from her previous husband had not yet been finalised at that time.
Faizal was subsequently charged and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment.
Also read: Woman fined S$5K for forging MC to care for ill mother, also faked death certificate
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Featured image adapted from Kameleon0077 on Canva, for illustration purposes only, and MS News.