Amore Fitness member forged MC for 3 years to extend membership
SINGAPORE — A client of a women-only fitness and beauty centre forged medical certificates for over three years in order to extend her gym membership.
After finding Amore Fitness’s membership fees expensive for her, Aida Tay Ai Ling, 47, engaged a printing ship to produce fake medical certificate (MC) booklets from Town Clinic, and also procured a fake doctor’s stamp.
She then forged 17 MCs from 2016 to last year in order to extend her membership with Amore.
Tay, a freelance writer, was jailed for three weeks on Friday (12 June), after she pleaded guilty to three counts of forgery and perverting the course of justice by destroying the fake booklets and stamp after learning that forgery was a criminal offence. Another 15 counts of forgery were taken into consideration for sentencing.
Asked why she was so attached to Amore by District Judge Marvin Bay, Tay, who has been clinically diagnosed with depression, replied that the gym was a “very important part” of her life and that she had attended its classes for about 10 years.
“To some people it’s just exercise but to me it is more than fitness. I attend dance classes and make a lot of friends, that’s my social circle.”
“I admit fighting mild depression...I want to go and work out,” she said, admitting that it was not very rational. She said that she would go for two to three classes everyday and up to 15 weekly, to “the point of obsession”.
“There’s a lot of interaction with members and they become second family... it is really my community that I fall back on and I feel happy and forget the troubles I’m facing.”
Tay’s membership was terminated since her offences were discovered last year.
Amore allowed its customers to extend their membership based on the number of days of their medical leave or travel period. To qualify for an extension, customers’ period of absence must be three days or more, and they were required to upload supporting documents onto their mobile apps.
In 2016, Tay’s membership was due for renewal. As she found the fees to be expensive, she turned to a printing company shop to make 10 fake MC booklets from Town Clinic, and procured a fake stamp bearing the name of a doctor at the clinic. She then forged 17 MCs from 22 April 2016 to 24 September last year, for a total duration of 98 days of medical leave.
An area manager of Amore became suspicious on 25 September last year after she realised that the serial numbers of Tay’s MCs were not in running sequence, and that a number appeared written over. The manager called Town Clinic to verify the MCs and discovered that the clinic had stopped issuing handwritten MCs for several years.
The next day, the doctor whose name was on Tay’s fake stamp called the Amore manager and told her that Tay’s MCs were not issued by her. The doctor informed the gym that Tay’s last visit to her clinic was on 14 November 2016.
The manager lodged a police report that same day. Amore terminated Tay’s membership via email over the act of fraud.
Amore lost $498 from Tay’s act of cheating. Tay has since compensated the gym with the full amount.
Tay learned that her acts of forgery were criminal offences after she read Amore’s email on 26 September last year. The day after, she destroyed the fake booklets and the stamp.
Citing Tay’s case as exceptional, her lawyer Raphael Louis pleaded with the court to call for a probation suitability report for his client. Probation is usually given to offenders below the age of 21 unless under special circumstances.
Louis said that after Tay approached him, the lawyer realised Tay had not committed the offences out of greed.
“I realised she had depression and that there were two major setbacks in her life and that adversely affected her...Why would anyone do it for $498?” said the lawyer, adding that the offence was “almost not logical”.
Louis urged the court not to make a third major setback in her life after “two failed relationships”.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Yen Seow objected to the propsosed probation suitability report. While acknowledging Tay’s depression, the prosecutor said rehabilitation was not as important as the principle of deterrence.
The DPP pointed out that there was no evidence of a causal or contributory link between Tay’s offences and her depression.
The exchange prompted DJ Bay to note Tay’s age and that probation for adult offenders was for exceptional cases.
“The principle of general deterrence must take precedence, and persons must be deterred from following in your footsteps, so that there is no erosion of the trust reposed that medical certificates are documents that faithfully and truly record an actual presenting condition,” said DJ Bay.
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