Representative image with the word 'sick leave'.
Credit: iStock Photo
A woman in Singapore was fined around Rs 3.2 lakh for forging a medical certificate in order to get leave at her workplace.
The 37-year-old wanted a break since she was not feeling well and was concerned about her mother's health. However, not wanting her company to have a 'bad impression' of her, she resorted to forgery, Channel News Asia reported.
How she committed the forgery
The woman took an old medical certificate and with the help of Photoshop made some changes so it would seem that she'd been sick.
She was absent from her job between March 23 and April 3 this year.
She altered the certificate header to that of a hospital which was close to her place of residence, and changed the date of hospitalisation to reflect her period of absence from work. Then she dated the certificate to March 21.
The woman further blurred the QR code on the certificate.
How she got caught
The blurring of the QR code led to her being caught. While the woman resigned from her job on April 4, she submitted the forged certificate to the company's HR.
When the head of HR, as part of the routine process, checked her leave and benefits, she came across the forged certificate with the blurred QR code, the publication reported.
When she tried to scan the code, it led to a broken web link. Then she got in touch with the exiting employee and asked her to furnish the orginal copy.
At this time, the worker -- who is a software developer -- made a new website and generated a new QR code too.
She used Photoshop to put the QR code on the forged medical certificate, as per Mothership.
She submitted this second certificate on April 8. At this point, her deparment head confronted her about the forgeries, demanding an explanation. The woman was fired with 24 hours notice, and the HR later filed a police complaint as well. As per Channel News Asia, the woman also forged her mother's death certificate.
As per court documents, she was paid Singaporean $3,541.15 during the 9 days she claimed to be hospitalised. Since then, she has compensated the company and been asked to pay a further amount of Singaporean $5,000.