Man got clinic assistant girlfriend to use other patients’ details to supply him with cough syrup, gets jail

SINGAPORE: A drug offender got his girlfriend to obtain the details of inactive patients at the clinic she worked at, then used the information to buy cough syrup when she was on duty.
The offences were uncovered only when a patient complained that someone else was collecting her medicine, with the clinic hiring a private investigator for S$12,000 (US$9,000) to get to the bottom of the issue.
Ng Kai Loon, a 36-year-old Singaporean man, was sentenced to jail for five months and two weeks on Monday (Aug 12).
He pleaded guilty to three charges including conspiring with his girlfriend, Tan Tong Lin, to cheat the clinic, and unauthorised access to computer material.
The court heard that Ng was abusing cough syrup at the time of the offences. His girlfriend, 42-year-old Tan, was working as a clinic assistant at Dr Helen Tan Clinic in Jurong East Street 21.
Around May 2021, Ng asked Tan to help him buy cough syrup from the clinic using other patients’ names, to get around the rule that only 240ml of cough syrup could be sold to a patient over a nine-day period, and to hide the fact that he was the real customer.
The clinic sold cough syrup over the counter without consultation and required patients to give only their names and IC numbers.
Tan agreed and logged into the clinic’s patient information system, obtaining a list of details of 65 patients who were considered “inactive” as they had not returned to the clinic for some time.
She shared the list with her boyfriend, who instigated her to reactivate the patients’ statuses in the system, so he could buy cough syrup using their names.
On at least 25 occasions between May and December in 2021, Ng went to the clinic while Tan was on duty and bought cough syrup using the patients’ names.
The ruse was uncovered when a patient complained that the clinic had allowed someone else to collect medication under her name, and the clinic hired a private investigator to look into the case.
Tan had pleaded guilty earlier and was given five months’ jail.
The prosecutor sought five to seven months’ jail for Ng, citing his long list of past offences including theft, robbery, drugs and cheating.
She said there was high potential harm in this case, and Ng had instigated Tan to abuse her position as a clinic employee.
The other patients had suffered “intangible harm” by having their personal details misused, said the prosecutor.
Defence lawyer Mr Kalaithasan Karuppaya asked for the “lowest possible sentence”, saying his client was “truly sorry” and “wants to change for the better”.
He said Ng, who attended the hearing via video-call from his place of remand, “regrets his actions” and is accepting responsibility.
Ng looks after his family, including two stepsons, and has promised his lawyer that he “does not wish to return to prison or court” and instead “intends to remain crime-free from this day onwards”, said the lawyer.
In sentencing, the judge noted that Ng had benefitted from the crimes, and that he has past convictions for similar offences which his co-accused did not have.