A workplace safety and health trainer learnt it the hard way that it does not pay to forge course certificates and sell them to foreign workers.
Ramanathan Thamilselvan, a trainer with Work Safe Consultants Pte Ltd, was jailed 10 months for fraudulent offences under the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Act at the State Courts on 18 January 2018.
Case Details
In a statement, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said Ramanathan Thamilselvan was charged with forging the Building Construction Supervisor Safety Course certificates and safety passes for workers without conducting any training and assessment.
MOM has warned that it takes a very serious view of any breach to the WSH Act as workplace safety and health issues directly affect the lives of workers.
The offences took place between January and March 2016. MOM added that two Directors from two other WSH training providers had earlier been jailed for similar offences in August and September last year.
A Serious Matter
The fraudulent certificates issued by the three training providers have been cancelled by MOM.
Their status as accredited training providers has also been revoked.
The foreign workers who bought the fraudulent certificates were barred from performing supervisory roles.
They will also not be allowed to renew their work pass upon expiry and will be banned from working in Singapore.