Man jailed for letting unvaccinated person use his TraceTogether app to enter Sentosa bar

SINGAPORE: A vaccinated man who let another person use his TraceTogether application to enter a Sentosa bar to dine in was jailed for five days on Friday (Feb 25).

Malaysian store manager Kiran Singh Rughbir Singh, 37, pleaded guilty earlier this month to one count of cheating by personation, through common intention with co-accused Utheyakumar Nallathamby.

Singh, his girlfriend and Utheyakumar, a 65-year-old retiree, had gone to Sentosa for drinks on Sep 9 last year. They first went to Bikini Bar, where Utheyakumar was denied entry as he was not vaccinated.

The group then headed down the road to Coastes Bar. Singh suggested that his girlfriend and Utheyakumar enter the bar first, with Utheyakumar using Singh's TraceTogether application and vaccination status.

They did so and successfully entered the bar, while Singh waited outside. While Utheyakumar and Singh's girlfriend had drinks at Coastes Bar, an employee from Bikini Bar recognised Utheyakumar as the unvaccinated man she had turned away.

She alerted Coastes Bar workers, who checked Utheyakumar's phone and realised it belonged to Singh.

The case was flagged to the police, who arrested both Singh and Utheyakumar.

The prosecutor had sought three weeks' jail for Singh, saying that he committed the offence "in the thick of a global pandemic, in a bid to gratify his selfish desire to sneak (Utheyakumar) into the Coastes Bar at all cost".

He also wanted to "deceptively circumvent the pandemic controls put in place" by the Government, said the prosecutor. She added that there is "no place for such self-serving and contemptuous conduct in Singapore, especially when the war against COVID-19 is still raging on".

For cheating by personation, Singh could have been jailed up to five years, fined, or both.

Utheyakumar's case is pending.