SINGAPORE - The fifth and final person linked to a ruse that saw false claims submitted to claim monies from a skills-training programme run by a government agency has admitted to his role in the scheme.
Marsh Terranova Tiruchellam, who was a trainer for business consultancy firm Loyal Reliance, received nearly $7,500 from the firm as "trainer's fees" for six courses he purportedly conducted in 2014.
On Friday (Dec 17), the 54-year-old pleaded guilty to three counts of falsification of accounts.
Four others, including Serene Loh Peh Wen, then 47, and Patrick Ho Kok Wing, then 57, were dealt with in court earlier.
They were each sentenced to between 11 weeks' and 29 months' jail.
By submitting false information linked to training courses that were not conducted, they had caused the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), now known as SkillsFuture Singapore, to disburse around $73,000 in total.
Marsh's offences were linked to $27,068 of the total sum.
At the time of the offences, the Singaporean was working with Loh, who was engaged by Loyal Reliance as an independent training consultant between late 2013 and April 2015.
Marsh was a trainer there from around 2013 to March 2015.
Loyal Reliance was a training provider approved by WDA under the Funding for Employer-based Training Scheme, which aimed to encourage firms to upgrade their workers' skills by defraying their costs.
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