A former property agent who pleaded guilty to stamp duty fraud will face a jail term of two weeks, ruled a district court.
According to reports, Koh Siew Buay collected a sum of S$1,028 in stamp duty from the tenants of the three premises she was handling. But she listed shorter rental periods and amounts in her electronic application for the stamp duty.
She then pocketed S$532 from the amount after producing fake stamp duty certificates for the tenants.
In an attempt to avoid jail time, defence counsel Louis Lim presented a report from the Institute of Mental Health indicating that Koh was suffering from depression at the time she committed the fraud.
However, the court felt the offence was severe enough, but taking into account her depression, she will only be jailed two weeks starting next month.
Koh is the second person to be convicted for counterfeit stamp certificates after agent Desmond Tan Hock Heng was jailed 12 weeks in May 2012 for a similar offence.
Using counterfeit stamp certificates may incur a maximum fine of S$10,000 and three-years in jail.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor of PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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