Jail for man who forged lawyer’s signature on 35 cheques, duped bank into disbursing over $221,000

A senior conveyancing secretary at a law firm forged his employer’s signature on 35 cheques over nine months and duped a bank into disbursing more than $221,000 to him.

Low Qi Hong, 32, was sentenced to a year and six months’ jail on Aug 4 after pleading guilty to one count of committing forgery for the purpose of cheating.

The Malaysian, who is no longer working for the firm, had committed the offences between March and November 2023.

He was caught more than a year after he suddenly took urgent leave one day and never returned to work.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Timothy Ong said that Low started working as a senior conveyancing secretary in June 2022 and reported to the company’s office manager, who was the husband of Low’s employer, a lawyer.

Low’s tasks included preparing payment vouchers and obtaining the lawyer’s approval whenever cheques had to be issued.

He started his crime spree in March 2023 and committed the offences by first obtaining a blank cheque.

At times, he would arrive early at the firm’s Novena premises, enter the manager’s office, and tear out a cheque from the company’s cheque book.

There were also times when Low was tasked to prepare payment vouchers and cheques.

He would then tear out two cheques instead of one and keep one of them for his own use. After that, he would make a photocopy of the blank cheque. 

Low would later prepare a fake payment voucher by writing fictitious transaction details on it after selecting a random payee from past ones listed in previous vouchers.

DPP Ong told the court: “The accused would write the same fictitious transaction details which he had written on the payment voucher onto the photocopy of the blank cheque, then create a photocopy of both these documents to file into the company’s records.

“The accused would also write the fictitious payment details in the cheque book.”

Next, Low would write an amount on the original cheque to be paid out either to himself or “cash” as the payee.

Finally, he would forge the lawyer’s signature by tracing it from previous legitimately signed cheques, and encash the cheque at a nearby bank. She was the sole signatory of the firm’s cheques, the court heard.

Shortly before 11am on Aug 21, 2023, he sent her a text message, stating that he had to take urgent leave as his “grandmother had just passed away”.

He became uncontactable soon after that.

Looking through Low’s files, the lawyer found out that he had told some of the firm’s clients that it would be waiving their legal fees, even though no one had given him any instructions to do so.

On Nov 18, 2023, the lawyer and her husband found out that large sums of money had been withdrawn from the company’s bank accounts.

The husband alerted the police the next day and Low was arrested on Dec 26, 2024.

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

ADV: Techlaw.Fest 2025 What is judicial mercy, and how does it apply to Ong Beng Seng’s case?: ST explains