THE wedding certificate - fake.
The Justice of Peace - fake.
The groom - fake, too. He's already married.
And as the blushing bride stood facing the bluffing groom at the solemnisation ceremony, her family felt their first twinge of suspicion.
Groom Raymond Wee Kian Seng's family and friends were nowhere in sight.
That suspicion became stronger at the wedding banquet held six months later at Orchard Hotel - the 10 tables reserved for Wee's friends and family stood empty.
And when his daughter, 30, got the unpaid bill for the banquet, the father of the bride turned detective.
He did a search at the Registry of Marriages (ROM) and found that there was no record of his daughter's marriage to Wee.
Married
Instead, he found out that Wee, 37, was already married to another woman, Madam Frances Pang Yoke Khoon, 34.
He complained to ROM, who then went to the police.
Yesterday, Wee was jailed one month and fined $8,000 after he pleaded guilty to three charges.
One of them involved the rare offence of fraudulently going through a wedding ceremony despite knowing that it is not a lawful marriage.
He also faced charges of falsely making a certificate of marriage and abetting his colleague, Ainagoundan Kattan, 53, to conduct the solemnisation.
In an interview last night, the bride's father said that his daughter had been dating Wee for about three years before they decided to get married.
But after they fixed a date for the solemnisation ceremony, Wee asked to postpone it.
The father said: "He (Wee) told us that his sister- in-law had a miscarriage and that his mother was not in the mood.
"We agreed to a postponement as that was a valid reason. We did not suspect anything then."
The solemnisation, followed by a lunch reception, was finally held on Dec 27, 2008, by the pool of The Pines country club at Stevens Road.
The wedding banquet was to be held six months later, on June 14 last year.
But three days before the big day,Wee came up with an excuse again.
The bride's father said: "He told us that his mother had been conned by a man in Vancouver and he had to rush over to settle the matter.
"He promised to return for the wedding but later, he SMSed my daughter to say that he had been detained in Canada."
Their worried calls to Wee's mobile phone went unanswered.
When his daughter's big day came, Wee was a no-show for the tea ceremony held in the morning.
"My daughter was so worried and upset that she cried the whole day," said the bride's father.
Relief
"We decided to go ahead with the dinner, praying hard and hoping that he could rush back in time."
Indeed, that day around 6pm, Wee turned up at the hotel.
The bride's father said: "We were so relieved and overjoyed that we did not probe him further on his Canada trip."
The wedding banquet took place as planned, but of the 28 tables, about 10 meant for Wee's family and friends were empty.
After their "marriage", Wee and his bride stayed with her family in their Hougang flat.
The family realised "something was not right" when the bank sent letters asking the bride to pay for the wedding dinner.
The father said: "He (Wee) had taken the hongbao money, which was about $17,000, and did not pay the hotel."
He decided to do an online ROM search.
"I got a shock when I saw that he was married to someone else."
A few days later, he sat his daughter down and asked her if she knew that Wee was a married man.
She said that she did not know and asked him for evidence.
"She broke down when I showed her the ROM search results and that day, she confronted him.
"They spoke in the room so we did not hear his explanation to her."
Wee left the flat later that day and did not return after that.
Despite the sham marriage she went through, the woman is standing by Wee and has fallen out with her family.
She moved out of the family home after Chinese New Year this year and blames her father for Wee's predicament.
Her father said: "She is angry with me and is avoiding me and the family. But we do not blame her as she had been conned by him too.
"We welcome her back any time."
Of all the men around that lady... be it her ex-classmates, colleagues, friends' friend, neighbours, or acquaintances.... that have been trying to court her, and she chooses to eye only on this guy for the sake of her "love"... she should also be hold responsible for the outcome.
If for any reason a person can support that this lady do not know that the man is married / engaged / attached over the entire courtship, its an excuse. Women are every sensitive on this during the courtship... no men can fool a woman. Its just depends on that woman whether she wants to "pretend she dont know" and expect that man to remove all his "relationship" with other woman to become single and eligible to marry or cohabit with .....
The man so fat & ugly some more....siao!
If I am the family members.....I will sue the man for this scam.
Guessed this man was her first lover.....stupid lady.
i feel this 'affair' should be allowed to play out, say another 3 years, maybe even 10. it will be better if theres kids, one on each side of the boat. hopefully things turn times become bad, all three start tussling with each other.
this is the only way all three will see themselves in clearer light (not to mention its good ref for desperate single females out there). currently any bystanders intending to break up the 'party' out of goodwill will only be met with utmost resistance because its human nature to be defensive and they will carry on this thing, all the more feeling distinguished from public opinion, in fact all three might even feel public dis-approval inadvertently exonerated their actions - they are proud they are in love..unlike many others who arent .....
No one could blame her or him.
In some cases, young females are so deeply in love that they even offer their bodies in exchange for money to keep their men, after they had presented to their men their one time life present.
It is not who is irresponsible.
It is who is willing to fall together.
This is the most difficult part for all inclusive of the law.
Pls... someone castrate the man, 1 mth jail is too light for beast like him!
The mistress should be sewn up or burned to prevent repeat case.
What would you say about this man?
First - his marriage was in crisis, he didn't resolve it but run away from it.
Second - of all the people, he "went back" to find his ex-gf?
Third - Still in his marriage, and yet wanted to marry his ex-gf and now his ex-gf become his "mistress"?
Win already lor, men just wanted to have the best of both worlds?
CASTRATE him! So irresponsible.
And don't know what to say about the 'mistress' also... he has deceived her, made her a 'mistress' without her knowledge, and she can still forgive him?
I'm sure she can find a better, more responsible man in Singapore!!! Agree, Singapore men?
I do agree that majority of the .....
he should be located and castrated for his devious and most unkind act.
(oups, have i stolen Dracula's line? :p)