15 months' jail for ex-MFA official who cooked up tart claims

[SINGAPORE] Lim Cheng Hoe, the former chief of protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), was yesterday sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment after pleading guilty on Monday to 10 charges of cheating the ministry by making fictitious pineapple tart claims.

The 61-year-old public service veteran, however, was not taken away immediately. He now has 14 days to decide if he wants to appeal the sentence.

Lim's lawyer, Philip Fong of Harry Elias Partnership, said that his client will be taking the time to consider his options, though he added that Lim would "like to put this behind him as soon as possible".

It is understood that the prosecution, which had on Monday asked for a jail term of 18 months, will also be considering whether to appeal.

District Judge Eddy Tham, in pronouncing the sentence yesterday, agreed with the prosecution's submissions that Lim's actions had generated public disquiet and hurt confidence in the public service, "as it involved a high ranking public officer who had deceitfully obtained public funds by virtue of his position and the trust reposed in him".

He also agreed that Lim's actions were "deliberate and conscious conduct with planning and premeditation . . . emboldened presumably by the ease to commit the acts multiple times until he was found out".

Lim had served as the highest-ranking protocol officer at MFA before he was charged in October last year. The civil servant was then in charge of the MFA directorate responsible for organising ministerial and presidential visits, and oversaw policies on diplomatic privileges and immunities.

He was accused of cheating the ministry of almost $90,000, between February 2008 and May 2012, by inflating the claims he made on thousands of boxes of pineapple tarts and hundreds of bottles of wine supposedly bought for official ministerial trips. Lim either did not use any or all of the tarts and wine he claimed for, and submitted false receipts to support his fictitious claims.

He admitted on Monday to 10 charges of cheating, amounting to $35,160 worth of inflated claims. The remaining 50 charges against him were taken into consideration for his sentencing.

Each charge, under Section 420 of the Penal Code, carries a maximum penalty of 10 years' jail and a fine.

In arguing for a lesser sentence, Mr Fong had said on Monday that there were extenuating circumstances surrounding his client's actions. He said that Lim inflated the claims only to make up for the expenses he had incurred in buying gifts for foreign diplomats whenever they hosted events in Singapore.

Mr Fong said Lim told him that it is not MFA's official policy to give gifts at such local functions, therefore, any MFA officials who gave gifts to these Singapore-based foreign diplomats would not be reimbursed for what they had spent.

So, in his attempt to overcome what he felt was "bureaucratic red tape", Lim overstated his claims to make up for these expenses.

Judge Tham, however, disagreed with this argument, pointing out that Lim clearly knew the rules and that he was "in blatant breach of policy". He also noted that Lim did not produce any evidence supporting this argument.

Judge Tham added: "It is tragic that a person who had risen through the ranks to attain a high position and who has stated in his mitigation plea that he possesses a 'strong sense of public duty' could so tarnish all the accolades he had received and betray the trust reposed in him. He did not have sense to know that he had crossed the line when he first manufactured false receipts and inflated claims to deceive his employer and continued to do so repeatedly."