SINGAPORE - A man who found a polytechnic student's ez-link card presented it at a clinic in Bishan in March last year to dupe an employee into handing over some cough syrup and a medical certificate.

Wan Yip Loong returned to the clinic four times in the subsequent months to commit similar offences.

The police later told the employee about the misused card and Wan was caught after he tried to commit a similar offence on Sept 24 last year.

The 29-year-old Singaporean was on Thursday (Oct 21) sentenced to two months and a week's jail after he pleaded guilty to one count each of dishonestly misappropriating the ez-link card, cheating by personation and forgery.

Court documents did not disclose if the student had made a police report about his lost card or what Wan did with the cough syrup he unlawfully obtained.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Samuel Yap said the 19-year-old student lost his ez-link card on Feb 13 last year and Wan later found it at an undisclosed location.

On March 19, Wan took the card with him to the clinic and used it to obtain the cough syrup and medical certificate. The employee entered the student's particulars into the clinic's register and Wan later received the items.

Wan returned to the clinic four times between April and August last year to obtain similar items.

The court heard that Wan had also used his mobile phone to snap a picture of the ez-link card.

After that, he used an application on the phone to replace the student's picture on the card with his own.

On Sept 24 last year, he returned to the clinic and showed the employee the edited photograph of the ez-link card.

The employee alerted the police and officers arrived to arrest Wan.

For cheating by personation, an offender can be jailed for up to five years and fined.