SINGAPORE: A man who deceived the former SPRING Singapore into disbursing S$85,000 (S$63,700) through its Innovation and Capability Voucher (ICV) scheme was sentenced to 22 months’ jail on Wednesday (Mar 12).
Donovan Goh Shen Shu, 36, pleaded guilty to five counts of cheating and five of falsifying accounts for offences between 2015 and 2016. Another 20 similar charges were taken into consideration for his sentencing.
Goh, a Singaporean, was the director and shareholder of five companies – IT Works Solutions, IT Works HR Systems, IT Works Accounting Systems, IT Works ERP Systems and IT Works Inventory Systems – incorporated in 2014 to sell various IT solutions.
Goh and another director Dexter Ng Wing Hong made use of the ICV scheme to obtain funds from SPRING Singapore.
The ICV scheme involved S$5,000 vouchers meant to encourage small- and medium-sized enterprises to develop their capabilities in several areas, including in integrated solutions.
An applicant would submit an application on the ICV online system to obtain approval from SPRING to buy a solution.
Upon approval, the applicant would buy a solution and submit a claim, including invoices and proof of payment, which was assessed by the ICV processing team.
The applicant was reimbursed when the claim was approved.
In 2018, SPRING Singapore was merged with International Enterprise Singapore to form Enterprise Singapore.
ACCUSED OFFERED CASHBACK
Goh, Ng and a team of salespersons saw the ICV scheme as a way to generate sales and to entice potential customers to purchase solutions from their companies.
The two directors instructed several salespersons to recruit individuals to buy solutions from their companies in return for cashback.
This meant that the solution’s cost was inflated so that the applicant could retain a portion of the disbursed funds as cashback before the remaining portion went to Goh’s companies.
Goh and Ng knew that the costs of the solutions on the claims were false as they were inflated. “They intended to deceive SPRING into believing that the applicants had paid at least S$5,000 for each of the solutions,” said the prosecution.
The accused persons also used falsified receipts to indicate that the applicants had paid for the solutions even though no such payments were made in some cases.
In one arrangement, a salesperson recruited the owner of a moving company to submit an ICV claim to SPRING for S$5,000. The owner was told that he would be paid if he did so.
Around Jun 4, 2015, the owner made a claim of S$5,000 for a purported purchase of a scheduling system. In fact, the sum was inflated so that the owner could claim a cashback of S$1,500.
The remaining sum of S$3,500 went to Goh’s companies.
Goh also abetted the creation of a false entry in an electronic record, in which a receipt was prepared to state that his company had received payment of S$5,000 from the moving company, when no such payment was made.
A SPRING employee lodged a complaint with the police in December 2016.
The prosecution said that substantial harm was caused to SPRING, and that the offences had been planned and premeditated. It sought 20 to 24 months’ jail for Goh.
Court documents did not state whether Ng has been dealt with.
For cheating, Goh could have been jailed up to 10 years, and fined.
For falsifying a record, Goh could have been jailed up to 10 years, or fined, or both.
