By Elena Chong, Courts Correspondent

A MAN who lied that a baby girl was born to his ex-wife was given the maximum fine of $1,000 on Monday.

Neo Kim Chwee, 43, a delivery driver, admitted to giving false information at Checkpoint Authority Building at Kallang Building on June 3, 2003.

A magistrate's court heard that he had gone there that day to register the birth of his daughter born about 18 months ago.

He claimed that he had delayed the registration as he was unable to produce his wife's identity card, and that her current whereabouts was unknown.

His ex-wife, Madam Chow Lay Choo, 33, told authorities that she was legally married to Neo in 1992 but divorced five years later. They have a teenage child.

The court heard that she refused to give her husband her NRIC in 2003 when he asked for it to settle some Housing Board matters,

Instead she gave him her Singapore International Passport. She further told authorities that she did not give birth to any child in April 2003.

Asked by the court, Neo said the mother of the child was a China woman who had returned home.

Pleading for a fine, he said there was no one to look after his five-year-old daughter, and he had to pick her up from a childcare centre every evening.