By Khushwant Singh

A FORMER restaurant owner, who was fined for lying to get employment passes for five foreign cooks, was spared a jail term when the High Court yesterday threw out an appeal by the prosecution.

In August, Ministry of Manpower (MOM) prosecutors had sought in a district court a prison term for Ms Celine Tan Bee Thin, 51.

The Attorney-General's Chambers then took up the cudgel and at the appeal hearing yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong argued that employers who over-declare salaries of workers to qualify for employment passes should be jailed, just like employees who submit false educational qualifications to the authorities to obtain such passes.

For more The Straits Times stories, click here.