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Four certificates of competence, his wife's name overprinted with his own, emailed to the Ministry of Health: the Singapore aesthetic doctor jailed four months for forgery
Singapore is usually described as one of the most tightly regulated places in the world to practise medicine, and a 2025 court case shows that the checking is real but not instant. A clinic offering aesthetic procedures needs a licence from the Ministry of Health (MOH), and the doctor is expected to hold a certificate of competence (COC) for each procedure, issued by the Aesthetic Dermatology Education Group (ADEG) to those who attend its workshop and pass the examination.
According to The Straits Times, in a report republished by The Star in Malaysia, Bernard Tan Wen Sheng, 35, wanted an MOH licence for Bay Aesthetics Clinic at Marina Bay Link Mall. His wife had passed the ADEG examinations in 2017 and held four COCs, covering chemical peels, assisted laser and IPL hair removal, fillers and botulinum toxin injections. The court heard that he printed his name in a similar font size, placed it over her details on each certificate and scanned the results. He had attended the filler and botulinum toxin workshops in 2017 but lost those certificates; he had never attended the other two.
On 20 February 2023 an MOH manager inspected the clinic by video link. The next day she asked by email for COCs for three services, and that afternoon he sent the forged scans. On 27 February the ministry replied that ADEG had no record of two of the workshops and asked for originals or confirmation; the following day he insisted he had attended them in May 2017. MOH approved the licence on 13 March 2023 for fillers and botulinum toxin only. According to International Business Times Singapore, he was charged in 2024 and pleaded guilty on 30 June 2025 to two counts of forgery and one of giving false information to a public servant, with two further forgery charges taken into consideration. On 29 July 2025 District Judge James Elisha Lee jailed him for four months, saying he had shown flagrant disrespect for a regulatory procedure meant to protect public health and safety.
The reports do not say how the offences came to light, but they show where the system held and where it did not. The ministry did check with the issuing body, and within six days ADEG's records exposed the two workshops he had never attended. What the check did not catch was that every scan was a forgery, a wife's name hidden under her husband's. An emailed image was treated as a document, and the applicant's standing as a doctor lent it weight.
The lesson for a student or family considering medicine abroad is the same. A scanned certificate, licence or accreditation letter proves nothing until the issuing body confirms it, and confirming one detail does not confirm the whole document. Ask the regulator or issuing body directly, in writing. Pay the institution, not the agent, and keep your originals. If a scan could pass a ministry official for a time, it can certainly pass you.
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This is a news-sourced case summary written by the TrustMBBS team, not a first-person account; see the sources above. They reflect one person's experience and are not a verdict on any institution. Report your own: Report a scam or tell your story.