Singapore fugitive caught at Changi after 24 years using fake passport
What's new: biometric checks exposed his false Indonesian identity, and his new sentence starts after an earlier 18-month jail term.
A Singaporean man who fled the country by fishing boat in 2002 to avoid jail was arrested at Changi Airport after trying to enter with an Indonesian passport under a false name. Tan Khi Wie, 58, was detained on March 7 after he could not clear an automated immigration lane and officers found he was wanted on a 2003 warrant. On Tuesday, he was sentenced to 14 months and three weeks in jail on immigration and court-related offenses. Tan had earlier been sentenced to 18 months for cheating the former Singapore Productivity and Standards Board out of S$195,800. Investigators said he escaped via Pasir Gudang, then traveled through Thailand to Jakarta, and later used the alias “Ken Srona” on multiple trips to Singapore between 2011 and 2016.