Wanting a break from work but fearing ‘bad impression’, woman forged MC to get hospital leave

SINGAPORE: A woman was fined S$5,000 (US$3,890) by a court on Tuesday (Oct 1) for forging a medical certificate (MC) in order to obtain hospitalisation leave from her company.
She had wanted a break from work as she was unwell and was worried about her mother’s health. 
However, she did not want her company to have “a bad impression of her” and thought hospitalisation leave was a good reason to be absent from work.
She had been paid S$3,541.15 for the duration of her hospitalisation leave, comprising nine working days.
Su Qin, 37, also forged her mother’s death certificate and submitted it to a different company later, as she wanted to extend her stay in China to care for her sick mother.
The Chinese national pleaded guilty to one count of forgery, with another two charges for forging a MC and a death certificate taken into consideration. 
The court heard that Su was employed by ETC Singapore SEC as a software developer.
In end-March to early April this year, she wanted to take a break from work and used Adobe Photoshop to forge a MC.
She used a legitimate certificate from a prior occasion and edited the header to “St Luke’s Hospital”, which was close to her address.
She edited the dates of hospitalisation leave to be Mar 23, 2024 to Apr 3, 2024 and put a date of Mar 31, 2024 on the MC. She then blurred the QR code on the document.
Su submitted the forged document to her company and managed to get leave. She later resigned on Apr 4.
As part of the company’s procedure for resigning staff, the head of human resources (HR) checked Su’s leave and benefits.
She came across Su’s forged MC and noticed that the QR code was blurred. When she tried to access it using the web link, she found that it was broken.
She asked Su to submit an original copy of the certificate. Su created a link similar to the address on the forged certificate and generated a QR code.
She forged a second MC and submitted it to HR.
However, the head of HR confronted Su over the two forged certificates, and the company fired her with 24 hours’ notice.
The HR head later lodged a police report.
Su later compensated the company.
According to Su’s mitigation plea, she worked remotely as a full-time freelancer for Century Games from November 2023 to Apr 15, 2024.
After receiving a distressing phone call from a hospital in China informing her that her mother’s condition had severely deteriorated, Su told Century Games that her mother had died, said her lawyer Mr Richard Lim from Richard Lim & Company.
She flew back to China that same day and later submitted a forged certificate over her mother’s purported death, in order to extend her stay in China to care for her critically ill mother, said Mr Lim.
This charge was taken into consideration for sentencing.
The prosecution sought a fine of S$5,000 to S$6,000 for Su, noting that she had forged two types of documents.
In his mitigation plea, Mr Lim asked for a “lenient fine”, saying Su’s actions were not driven by malice or financial greed, though “undeniably wrong”.
“Instead, they were the impulsive decisions of an individual under immense emotional and physical strain to cope with overwhelming personal and professional stress,” he said.
“The accused has learned a bitter lesson and has had sleepless nights worrying about this matter,” said the lawyer. “She has been terminated by both companies as a result of her wrongdoings and is currently unemployed.”
Su had come to Singapore at the age of 18 in 2005 after being awarded a scholarship by the Ministry of Education, according to the mitigation plea.
She graduated from Nanyang Technological University with a Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Science) and began working as a software engineer after graduating.
Mr Lim said Su is the sole breadwinner for her elderly parents and is the only child in the family, bearing full responsibility for her parents.
“Her mother has been battling multiple illnesses due to old age, and has been in and out of hospitals in recent years,” said the lawyer. “As a devoted daughter, the accused has shouldered the financial burden of her mother’s medical expenses entirely on her own.”
He said Su took on her second freelance role to supplement her income and cover her mother’s hefty medical expenses. The freelance position did not come with paid leave.
Mr Lim said Su’s primary motive in forging the two MCs was not to deceive the company for any financial gain, but rather “a desperate need for rest” as her mother’s condition at home was very serious and she lacked the energy to focus on work.
When confronted by HR following the “badly created” second forged MC, Su “immediately admitted to the forgery, expressed her deep regret, and sought forgiveness”, said Mr Lim.
He said she volunteered to and compensated ETC for the amount paid to her during her “hospitalisation leave”, even before she was called up by the police.
Su’s mother remains “in a dire condition” and needs constant care back home in China, said Mr Lim, asking for a lenient fine so his client could return immediately to China to care for her mother.
For forgery, she could have been jailed for up to four years, fined, or both.