A 37-year-old software developer in Singapore was fined S$5,000 after forging a medical certificate (MC) to take leave from work to care for her ill mother.
Su Qin (transliterated from Chinese), a full-time employee at ETC Singapore SEC, resorted to forging documents as she was concerned about how her company would perceive her request for leave.
According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), she did not want her employer to have a bad impression of her.
In early April, Su used Photoshop to alter the header of a previous MC to make it appear as though it was issued by St Luke’s Hospital.
She edited the dates to reflect hospitalisation leave from 23 March to 3 April 2024 and also added a date of 31 March on the MC.
In addition, she obscured the document’s QR code to avoid detection, Shin Min Daily News reported.
After submitting the altered MC, Su’s request for leave was approved.
On 4 April, Su resigned from her company. During the resignation process, the head of human resources (HR) reviewed her leave records and noticed the blurred QR code on the submitted MC. Upon attempting to verify it, the HR manager found the QR link invalid.
As a result, she asked Su to send her an original copy of the certificate.
Su then created a link similar to the address on the forged certificate and generated a new QR code. Using Photoshop, she edited the QR code onto another forged MC and submitted it.
However, HR confronted her over the two forged MCs, and the company fired her with 24 hours’ notice.
Su’s misconduct was also reported to the police.
Su had received S$3,541.15 in paid leave for the nine days she was off work, which she later compensated to the company after her dismissal.
Su’s lawyer, Mr Richard Lim from Richard Lim & Company, revealed that Su had told a different company that her mother had died. In reality, her mother was critically ill.
Su flew back to China and later submitted a forged certificate over her mother’s purported death to extend her stay in China and spend more time caring for her.
This happened while she was working as a full-time freelancer for Century Games from November 2023 through 15 April 2024.
This charge was taken into consideration for sentencing.
The prosecution requested a fine of S$5,000 to S$6,000, given that Su forged two types of documents.
Mr Lim, however, asked for leniency, noting that Su’s actions stemmed from desperation and were not driven by malicious intent or financial gain.
She is the sole breadwinner for her elderly parents and is the only child in the family, he said.
Acknowledging that what she did was “undeniably wrong”, he added that Su, who graduated from Nanyang Technological University with a Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Science), has “learned a bitter lesson and has had sleepless nights worrying about this matter”.
She has also lost both jobs and is unemployed.
Su was ultimately fined S$5,000 in light of the fact that she had compensated the company, reported Shin Min Daily News.
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Featured image adapted from Medvisit, for illustrative purposes.
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