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Woman who believed her boyfriend was cheating on her made false police report about him

Couple. Back to back.
Couple quarrel (FILE PHOTO: Getty Images)

SINGAPORE — Believing that her boyfriend was cheating on her, a woman threatened to report him to the police.

Velda Lim Ming, 26, then reported to the Singapore Police Force (SPF) that her boyfriend, a 23-year-old Singaporean, had an “unauthorised armoury” at his house which contained guns, and illegal weapons that he was selling.

When the police failed to act on her anonymous tipoff, Lim repeated the false accusations to the police in a second message.

Lim pleaded guilty on Tuesday (26 January) to one of two counts of submitting false information to the authorities, with the other taken into consideration for her sentencing, which was adjourned to 10 March. She had originally intended to claim trial, but admitted to her charges on the first day of her scheduled hearing.

Lim and her boyfriend were in a romantic relationship from March 2018 to May 2019. In the last month of their relationship, Lim discovered that he had travelled to Bangkok with a female friend.

She sent him multiple angry texts and demanded proof that he was not cheating on her, threatening to report him to the police.

On 27 May 2019, she sent a message to the SPF from their feedback portal stating that she believed her boyfriend had an “unauthorised armoury” located at his house or placed at one of his friend’s house.

The message, reproduced in full in court documents, further added, “I have a screenshot of him telling me that he has possession of a gun and I know that he and one of his friends has been bringing in illegal weapons and then selling them to others. They are a danger to the community and spreading that danger along with them.”

Lim further accused her boyfriend of “illegal traits” (sic) in Malaysia and Singapore, with some of his friends on the run from the police.

She added, “Please look (sic) him up to prevent such dangers in our community”, and appended her boyfriend’s and his friend’s residential addresses to the message.

She also attached messages from her boyfriend in 2018 in which he allegedly referred to a “pistol”. In order to submit the message, Lim created a new email account and used the incognito mode on her internet browser to avoid being traced.

“The accused decided to report (the boyfriend) to the police as she suspected that he was cheating on her and was angry with him, and wanted to teach him a lesson by scaring him,” Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Pearly Ang told the court.

She intended for her boyfriend to be investigated by the police for the false allegations.

The next day, when Lim found that no action was being taken against her boyfriend by the police, she submitted another message of the same message through the same portal.

“The accused did this as she had seen (her boyfriend) meeting with another friend on (social media platform) ‘Instagram’ and was angry that he had not yet been apprehended by the police,” DPP Ang said.

The police took action on 31 May, raiding both the residences of the boyfriend and his friend. Officers from three different units were deployed but nothing incriminating was found at either residence.

Lim’s lies began to unravel. Court documents did not reveal how she was traced for the offences.

For giving false information to a public servant, Lim faces a jail term of up to two years, or a fine, or both.

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