- Illustrative photo.
SINGAPORE: A man studying in the US with the help of an interest-free loan from a community self-help organisation decided to switch to a course in Germany instead.
To continue receiving the loan money, the former air steward forged documents to show that he was still enrolled in the US institution.
On Thursday (April 3), Muhammad Hakim Jaffar Abdul Aziz, 34, was sentenced to five weeks’ jail after he pleaded guilty to one forgery charge.
His loan was supposed to be split into three annual payments of S$15,000 each.
After Malay/Muslim self-help group Yayasan Mendaki disbursed the first payment, it found out about the forgeries after checks with the US university.
The second and third disbursements of the loan were not paid out.
Hakim has since made full restitution of the first $15,000 he received.
He was suffering from a diagnosed major depressive episode when he sought to study overseas to improve his mental well-being.
In 2022, with the help of the interest-free loan from Yayasan Mendaki, he enrolled in a three-year Communications Arts degree programme at the Florida International University (FLU) in Miami.
After placing on the dean’s list in the spring term of his first year in 2022, he found another university in Germany that offered a similar degree programme at a lower cost.
Hakim then applied to the Macromedia University in Berlin and was awarded a partial scholarship to study there.
As he had switched to another university without informing Mendaki, he broke the terms of his loan, which stipulated that any further disbursements of the loan would stop.
Hakim would also be required to return the amounts he had been loaned on Mendaki’s demand.
Investigations found that he had attended FLU from only Jan 10, 2022, to April 23, 2022, but he continued to reside in Miami until August 2022 before moving to Berlin.
Mendaki made the first payment to him in February 2022.
Between December 2022 and March 2023, Hakim forged four documents to Mendaki to show he was still enrolled in FLU in order to receive the second batch of his loan payment.
S Balamurugan, Hakim’s lawyer, said the man had turned to forgery in desperation as he needed money to pay for his school fees and rent in Berlin.
This was after he had emptied out his own savings of about $20,000 to give to his aunt, who had asked him for a loan.
In mitigation, Balamurugan said Hakim had transferred the money to his aunt as he believed she needed the money for her cancer treatment.
This left him without any funds for his own expenses in Berlin.
“My client has realised committing forgery is like having a house built on sand. He accepts his responsibility for his offences,” said Balamurugan.
Those found guilty of forgery can be jailed up to four years, fined, or both. - The Straits Times/ANN
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