Overseas Grad Denied Bar Admission for Covering Up Plagiarism Incidents

She at first even denied consent to UK uni to disclose info to Attorney-General's Chambers

- Selina Lum

An overseas law graduate who was applying to be admitted to the Singapore Bar failed to disclose that she was found to have collaborated with another candidate in a paper for the Bar exam in 2020.

She also failed to disclose that while she was studying in a university in Britain, she was found to have committed some form of plagiarism in three incidents between 2018 and 2019.

She even tried to conceal her academic wrongdoings by not giving her consent for the university to disclose the information to the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC).

The woman's application to be admitted as a lawyer was dismissed by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon. "Indeed, this was a quintessential case for doing so," said the Chief Justice in written grounds issued on April 21.

He also barred her from making a fresh application for five years, saying that her conduct was more serious than other cases involving academic dishonesty.

"The applicant's pattern of dishonesty, including her litany of academic offences involving passing off the work of others as her own and her lack of candour...evidenced serious dishonesty and a persistent unwillingness to come to grips with the nature and gravity of her ethical failures," he said.

The woman, who was 28 years old when the Chief Justice heard her admission application in October 2024, was not named.