Doctor and assistant linked to Healing the Divide group offered bail in alleged vaccine fraud case

 

SINGAPORE: A doctor and his assistant who are accused of conspiring to defraud the Ministry of Health (MOH) by submitting false vaccination data were offered bail on Monday (Jan 31).

Doctor Jipson Quah, 33, and his assistant Thomas Chua Cheng Soon, 40, have been remanded since Jan 21.

They are accused of conspiring with each other and a patient named Mehrajunnisha to dishonestly make a false representation to MOH, by lying that the patient was vaccinated with the Sinopharm dose when she was not.

On Monday, the prosecutor said Quah is no longer required to be in custody for investigations. He asked the court to offer Quah bail of S$20,000 and sought six weeks' adjournment, saying investigations are ongoing.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Samuel Yap asked the court to order Quah not to communicate with other people named in the charge and case - including Chua and Iris Koh, the founder of Healing the Divide.

Quah discharged his lawyers from Withers KhattarWong. His new lawyer, Mr Anand Nalachandran, took over the case on Monday.

Mr Nalachandran pointed out that his client would need to communicate with some witnesses who are staff members of his clinic.

The judge ordered that Quah was not to communicate with prosecution witnesses, but allowed him to do so with clinic staff solely over work matters.

The prosecution similarly asked for an adjournment for Chua's case and he was offered bail of S$15,000.

He previously said he felt he did not "deserve" the charge and was just the "middleman", following Quah's instructions.

If convicted of dishonestly making a false representation, Quah and Chua can be jailed up to 20 years, fined, or both.

Iris Koh, who is also linked to the case and faces a similar charge, is set to make an urgent application to the High Court to obtain bail on Monday morning.