A man posing as someone else was serving jail time for not paying fines imposed for the other man's offences when his true identity came to light. 

A prison officer was checking through the records of inmate Yap Yew Fatt last November when he saw that Yap's photograph was very different from previous ones. 

He then lodged a police report believing that Yap was an imposter.

It turned out that Yap was in fact Tan Thiam Chye, 41.

Tan had failed to attend court in last September for his drug charges and a warrant was issued against him.

He then planned to flee Singapore and bought a forged Singapore international passport in the name of Yap Yew Fatt for $2,500 in Geylang on Oct 9, 2011. The passport bore his photograph.

Three days later when he tried to leave via Woodlands checkpoint with the forged document, he was arrested.

Unknown to him, Yap was wanted for loss of contact under the Enlistment Regulation, having uncustomed goods and illegal hawking.

On Oct 14 and 21, Tan pretended to be Yap when he was produced in court. He was fined a total of $30,100 or 43 days' jail in default after admitting to Yap's offences. 

On Tuesday, Tan pleaded guilty to six charges including drug possession and consumption, and was sentenced to a total of eight years and three months' jail plus three strokes of the cane.

Check out more court stories in The Courtroom.