Woman jailed for registering marriage without consent

Woman jailed for registering marriage without consent
A 32-year-old finance assistant stole her ex-boyfriend's identity card and got a friend to impersonate him in front of a solemniser.

By Vanessa Paige Chelvan
Posted 06 Jun 2016 20:12 Updated 06 Jun 2016 20:20

SINGAPORE: When her boyfriend left her after becoming suspicious the son they shared was not biologically his, a woman devised a plan to get her lover back.

The 32-year-old finance assistant stole her ex-boyfriend’s national registration identity card (NRIC) and enlisted the help of her friend Matthew Yeo Chia Loong to impersonate him, then she registered their marriage.

The woman pleaded guilty on Monday (Jun 6) to cheating, for duping a licensed solemniser into believing Yeo was the same man in the stolen NRIC, and signing the Certificate of Marriage as a result.

The woman and her ex-boyfriend cannot be named to protect the identity of the boy, now six.

She also pleaded guilty to a second charge under the Oaths and Declarations Act, for abetting Yeo to lie to a Registry of Marriages employee about his identity in a statutory declaration.

Her offences came to light when the ex-boyfriend lodged a police report in November 2012, after she sent him a photograph of a Certificate of Marriage bearing their names.

The court heard the pair met in 2010, and their son was born the same year. The woman was married at the time, but was not living with her husband. However, the baby’s birth certificate listed her husband as the father. The couple divorced in 2011.

In 2012, the woman’s boyfriend grew suspicious that the boy was not his biological son, and broke up with her despite her insistence that the child was his, the court heard.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Chew Xin Ying told the court it was then that the woman decided she wanted to marry her boyfriend, as she wanted him to "return to her and not marry anyone else”.

In court on Monday, DPP Chew said the woman’s offences were “rather sophisticated" and noted that she abetted Yeo in lying to a Government agency and misusing another person’s NRIC.

Defence lawyer Diana Ngiam told the court stress had led to the woman's "misguided actions", noting an Institute of Mental Health report said the woman suffered from Acute Stress Reaction after her boyfriend left her. The distraught woman had also attempted suicide, Ms Ngiam said.

The judge sentenced the woman to four weeks' jail. For cheating, she could have been jailed up to three years and/or fined. For abetting Yeo to make a false statement in a statutory declaration, she could have faced up to three years’ jail and/or a fine.

Yeo has left the country, and his whereabouts are unknown.

The sham marriage has not been dissolved, although the Registry of Marriages has confirmed that in the present case, in which a man’s identity was misused to register a marriage without his consent, a Family Court order has to be obtained to void the marriage, DPP Chew said.

- CNA/ly



- wong chee tat :)