SINGAPORE: An employment agent cooked up a scheme with another woman to obtain domestic worker permits for foreigners who did not work as maids but found their own other jobs.
The prosecution said the women essentially sold work permits to three foreigners for between S$5,000 (US$3,950) and S$11,600 each.
Through the illegal scheme, the three foreign women were hired as maids on paper but instead performed part-time work as waitresses or cleaners.
The employment agent, 61-year-old Singaporean Josephine Santos Ho, was sentenced to 23 weeks’ jail on Monday (Feb 23). She pleaded guilty to eight charges under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, with another eight charges considered in sentencing.
She was also ordered to pay a penalty of S$3,000 which amounts to her proceeds of crime.
THE CASE
The court heard that Ho was the key appointment holder at Expert Business Management & Consultancy, an employment agency.
In 2018, she met a woman named Jennifer Choo Joo Kheng, also a 61-year-old Singaporean.
Together, they devised a scheme where they would help foreigners obtain domestic worker work permits in Singapore.
However, these foreigners would not work for, or live with, their declared employers but find their own jobs elsewhere.
Ho was responsible for looking for foreigners while Choo was to find local individuals who were willing to let their names be used to employ the foreigners.
The foreigner would have to pay a sum of money, which would be split between Ho, Choo and the local who would be hiring the foreigner on paper.
