Lawyer who forged court orders after feeling overwhelmed by work gets 2 years’ jail

Feeling overwhelmed by her workload, a lawyer delayed working on her clients’ deputyship applications and realised later that medical reports linked to them had expired.

Instead of approaching the two male clients for fresh medical reports, Banupriya Ravichandran, who was then working for K K Lee Law Corporation, forged two orders that were purportedly from the Family Justice Courts (FJC), and the men then submitted the documents in their application for grants.

Separately, she also forged the title of a flat that a third client later submitted to the Housing Board.

On Oct 2, Banupriya, 34, was sentenced to two years’ jail after she pleaded guilty to three counts of forgery.

The Singaporean’s particulars could not be found following a search on lawyers on the Ministry of Law’s website on Oct 3.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Wong Shiau Yin said that between 2018 and 2019, two clients – identified in court documents as V1 and V2 – approached Banupriya for help with their deputyship applications.

A deputyship allows an individual to manage the affairs of another person who has lost his or her mental capacity.

The court heard that V1 wanted to appoint himself as a deputy for his son, while V2 wanted to appoint himself as a deputy for his aunt.

During an engagement with the two men, Banupriya obtained the medical reports of the persons lacking mental capacity, which was a requirement for the filing of deputyship applications.

The medical reports had a validity period of six months from the date of issuance.

DPP Wong said that if the reports were to expire, Banupriya would have to request fresh medical reports from her clients.

The DPP added: “As the accused felt overwhelmed by her workload... she delayed working on the deputyship applications. As a result of the delays, the accused subsequently realised that the medical reports had expired.

“The accused did not want to approach V1 and V2 for fresh medical reports, for fear of reprisal, and therefore decided to forge two orders of court purportedly made by the (FJC).”

One of the orders was dated Nov 14, 2019. Between that day and July 28, 2020, Banupriya forged the order by using her office computer to download older documents from earlier cases stored in her then workplace’s shared drive, and converted them into Microsoft Word documents.

After that, she made edits, printed the forged documents and passed them to V1.

The second forged court order, dated Aug 13, 2019, pertained to an order of court appointing V2 and another person as deputies for V2’s aunt. The DPP said that between Aug 8, 2019, and Nov 30, 2020, Banupriya used a similar method to fraudulently create it.

The two forged orders were discovered after V1 and V2 submitted them to the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) for the application of grants.

The social welfare agency had conducted checks with the FJC and found that the names of the applicants did not match those on the court orders.

Separately, a woman identified as V7 in court documents engaged Banupriya in September 2018 to apply for a presumption of death in relation to a co-owner of her father’s HDB flat.

The co-owner was understood to be missing and V7 had engaged the lawyer’s services so that her father could become the property’s sole owner. He could also receive all the proceeds of the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme from HDB, the court heard.

V7’s father died in June 2019 and bequeathed the flat to her. However, Banupriya had yet to apply for the presumption of death by September that year.

She then advised V7 to take an alternative course of action to execute her late father’s will. For this, the lawyer had to apply with the FJC to recognise V7 as the sole executrix of her late father’s will, and to sever the man’s joint tenancy with the missing co-owner.

To do so, Banupriya had to submit a statutory declaration to the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) that V7 had to sign. Once it is successful, SLA would issue a hard copy title deed of the flat with a physical severance stamp.

DPP Wong said: “However, the accused also delayed in making the necessary applications... due to her overwhelming workload. This led V7 to pressure the accused for updates, as she was unhappy with the delays over her matter.”

To alleviate the pressure, Banupriya forged the title deed of the flat to appease her client. On Jan 3, 2020, V7 unknowingly submitted the title deed to HDB via e-mail. The forgery was discovered when HDB conducted a check with SLA, said the prosecutor.

Banupriya was later charged in court in 2024.

Her bail was set at $25,000 on Oct 2 and she is expected to begin serving her sentence on Oct 31.

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

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