A court in Keelung, a port city near Taipei, is hearing a fraud case involving an Indonesian woman, now 43, her Taiwanese lover, 49, and his sister.
The Indonesian was a migrant worker, but in 2002 she ran away from her legal employer and met a Taiwanese man, with whom she had a baby girl, The Liberty Times reported on Tuesday.
The father of the baby allegedly used his younger sister’s health card to register the child as his niece rather than his daughter. In 2004, the couple had a second daughter.
They received a one-off allowance of NT$20,000 (US$690) and have been claiming government childcare subsidies of NT$2,000 per month since 2016 for each of their daughters, Taiwan Apple Daily reported.
In October 2016, the Indonesian woman was arrested for illegally working in a restaurant. She, her lover and his sister were then accused of fraudulently receiving public money.
The Indonesian was deported back to her homeland before Taiwan Keelung District Court began hearing the case, where the three defendants face charges of fraud and causing a functionary to make false entries in public documents. However, she will be allowed to return and marry the father of her children some time later, according to Taiwan law.