Man fled Singapore on fishing boat to avoid jail, caught at Changi Airport more than 20 years later

He had cheated the then-Singapore Productivity and Standards Board into disbursing a S$195,800 (then US$109,300) grant under the Local Enterprise Technical Assistance Scheme.

He filed a notice of appeal against his conviction and sentence that same month, but fled Singapore to avoid serving the jail term.

Investigations found that sometime between August 2002 and January 2003, he left Singapore illegally on a fishing boat.

He travelled first to Pasir Gudang in Johor, Malaysia, then to Thailand, and eventually to Jakarta, Indonesia, where he later lived.

He failed to appear at a court mention for his appeal on Jan 21, 2003, and a warrant of arrest was issued against him on Feb 20 that year.

RETURNED TO SINGAPORE UNDER FALSE IDENTITY

Despite being wanted by the authorities, Tan returned to Singapore several times.

Between 2011 and 2016, he used Indonesian passports bearing the false identity “Ken Srona” to enter and leave Singapore on multiple occasions.

“Tan also falsely declared in his disembarkation forms that he had never used a passport under a different name to enter Singapore,” the police and ICA said.

For his various offences, he was convicted of two charges of failing to present a valid passport, as well as one charge each of making a false statement in an arrival disembarkation card, knowingly producing a false passport, departing Singapore illegally and failing to attend court.

ICA said that it has strengthened its immigration clearance processes and systems by using biometrics and data analytics.

Since July 2020, multi-modal biometric systems have been deployed at Singapore’s checkpoints for better detection of people using multiple or assumed identities.

All automated lanes at Singapore’s land, sea and air checkpoints are equipped with iris and facial scanners, and the concurrent use of these biometric identifiers “provides a highly accurate means of authenticating travellers’ identities and further strengthens ICA’s ability to safeguard Singapore’s borders”, it added.

ICA warned that it would take firm action against travellers who attempt to enter or leave Singapore using an impersonated identity or one different from that used on previous trips to circumvent immigration checks.