By Khushwant Singh

A FORMER chairman of a neighbourhood sports club on Monday admitted to forging 22 receipts for fictitious purchases of door gifts to cheat the club of $26,700.

Koh Eng Ann, 49, who received a Public Service Medal in 2005 for his community work, will be sentenced on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to five charges.

A district court heard that he was first appointed chairman of the Jalan Kayu Constituency Sports Council in Oct 2000 and re-appointed in 2002 and 2004.

Between November 2006 and April last year, he forged receipts for pens, bags and lamps, and claimed payment from the treasurer.

The fraud was discovered by an assistant constituency manager during an audit check of grassroots organisations by the People's Association last May.

She became suspicious when she noticed that payments for door gifts by the sports council for three events, which amounted to $26,700, were extremely high.

Senior constituency manager Wong Loke Suan, 61, queried Koh, who immediately admitted to cheating the club.

He then returned all the money.

Asking District Judge Liew Thiam Leng for a lenient sentence, Koh's lawyer Wee Pan Lee said that Koh was then financially strapped.

He owed $120,000 to banks and interest alone amounted to $4,000 a month, which was what he earned as a contractor.

Koh is now jobless, and his wife works as a part-time clerk earning about $500 a month. The couple has two children, aged 11 and 15, both students.

He faces a jail term of up to seven years and a fine for each forgery charge.