An unemployed man was sentenced to 11 months in jail yesterday for molesting his two teenage sisters and insulting the modesty of the younger one.
The 22-year-old pleaded guilty last month to touching the breasts of his 15-year-old sister on July 16 this year, and his then 17-year-old sister in late January 2014.
He also admitted exposing himself to the younger victim this July.
None of the parties can be named due to a gag order.
The court heard that the 15-year-old student was asleep in bed at their family home at about 8am on July 16 when she was awakened by someone touching her T-shirt over her right breast.
When she opened her eyes, she saw her brother standing naked in front of her. She shouted at him, telling him to leave.
He apologised, returned to his room and locked the door.
A few days earlier, he had been drinking and felt sexually aroused. He stripped naked, went to the kitchen and asked the same sister to touch him.
He walked away only after she said he was disgusting and told him to put on his clothes.
Investigations also showed that he molested the other sister at home two years ago while she was sleeping in her room.
The accused, who was not represented, told the court that he had made many mistakes and regretted them.
He could have been jailed for up to two years, fined, caned or received any combined punishment for outrage of modesty.
The maximum punishment for using words or gestures intended to insult the modesty of a woman is one year's jail and a fine.
<p>An unemployed man was sentenced to 11 months in jail yesterday for molesting his two teenage sisters and insulting the modesty of the younger one.</p>
A man who slashed his elder brother's face with a knife, causing a 10cm-long wound, was jailed for 12 months yesterday.
Jasman Sertrosentorno, 44, a warehouse assistant, pleaded guilty to causing his 50-year-old brother Sahad to suffer permanent disfiguration to his face at a Clementi coffee shop on May 2.
Investigations showed that earlier that day before 5am, Mr Sahad, who was unemployed, met his girlfriend, Ms Norliza Abdul Amit, 46, at the coffee shop in Block 345, Clementi Avenue 5, for a drink.
Around this time, Jasman called Ms Norliza and told her not to meet his brother.
He and his family members were unhappy about the victim's relationship with her as she was a married woman.
Ms Norliza told Mr Sahad this, and he told Jasman not to interfere.
Mr Sahad also informed his brother where he was.
Jasman, accompanied by a stepbrother and two female family members, confronted his brother at the coffee shop at about 5am.
He had with him the knife, which was hidden in his pants.
The group went to the table where Mr Sahad and Ms Norliza were seated.
Jasman expressed his unhappiness that Mr Sahad had gone to meet Ms Norliza instead of taking care of a family member.
An argument broke out.
Jasman took out the knife and swung it at his brother, who picked up a chair and swung it at Jasman while retreating.
Mr Sahad was slashed on the left side of his face, while the chair he was wielding hit Jasman on his upper lip.
The police were called.
Jasman and his group of family members left while Ms Norliza took the victim to a hospital in a taxi.
Jasman was arrested on May 9.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Gail Wong, who asked for a sentence in excess of 12 months, said the offence occurred in a public place in the early hours of the morning.
She said Jasman came armed with a knife, indicating some element of premeditation.
Since he attacked a family member, there was also an abuse of trust.
She said Jasman swung the knife at the victim several times while advancing towards him.
"It is wholly disproportionate to any dispute that they had."
Jasman's lawyer Tan Jeh Yaw said in mitigation that his client, a divorcee, was extremely remorseful.
The two brothers met after the incident on May 12 and embraced.
The victim has forgiven his attacker, and the incident has brought them closer, said Mr Tan.
The maximum punishment for causing grievous hurt is 10 years' jail, a fine or caning.
SINGAPORE - An airport manager who misappropriated almost $500,000 was jailed for 42 months on Monday (Oct 24).
Lim Guan Tee, 61, was employed by Asia-Pacific Star (APS), a subsidiary of SATS, when he committed criminal breach of trust of $476,682 in cash entrusted to him from July 9 to Oct 10, 2014.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Kenneth Chin told the court that Lim had been employed by SATS since 1976 and was seconded to APS in October 2009.
He managed the Lost and Found Office and his job scope included reconciling differences between cash sales recorded and cash collected by the Tiger Airways counter.
Lim, the court heard, had on occasions taken Brinks polymer bags containing cash directly from the sales desk agents at the airline counter, saying he would pass them to the Lost and Found office.
The sales desk agents gave the bags to him as they viewed him as their superior.
From 2013 to October 2014, Lim had instructed the Lost and Found supervisors on duty to pass the polymer bags given by the sales desk agents directly to him or to place the bags into a separate safe for lost and found items.
The supervisors were instructed not to fill up the summary list for the bags that were kept in the small safe or handed to him directly.
At times, he also instructed the supervisors to remove the polymer bags from the Brinks safe when the Brinks agents were retrieving the polymer bags and to keep them in the small safe.
The Brinks agents did not object as long as the removed polymer bags were struck out from the summary list.
Lim said he needed the bags to perform reconciliation of the cash with the recorded cash sales. He gave himself up on Oct 16, 2014. Only $12 was recovered from the polymer bags.
Lim used the money to gamble and repay his loans.
Mr Sunil Sudheesan said Lim brought with him all the pieces of evidence when he surrendered to the Commercial Affairs Department, which showed "co-operation of the highest degree".
Pleading for mercy, Mr Sunil said Lim was sincerely remorseful and promises not to re-offend.
Lim, who has been remanded since June 8, 2016, spoke up in court, advising people not to fall into the trap that he had.
"When (it's) time to let go, let go,'' he said. He could have been jailed for up to 15 years and fined for criminal breach of trust as a servant.
The father of a one-year-old infant, desperate to stay in Singapore and to see his daughter, slashed the throat of his estranged Singaporean wife who had rebuffed his demands, the High Court heard yesterday.
Indian national Krishnan Karunakaran, 45, had confronted Madam Boomichelvi Ramasamy with a knife outside her Hougang flat to threaten her into extending his visa and allowing him to see their child.
The 38-year-old teacher survived the life-threatening injury, which severed her internal jugular vein, a major blood vessel. She was discharged from hospital two days after emergency surgery.
Yesterday, Krishnan pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted culpable homicide and one charge of criminal intimidation over the Oct 27, 2013 incident. Two other charges - for trying to stab Madam Boomichelvi's abdomen and for threatening her domestic worker - will be considered during sentencing, which was adjourned to Friday.
The court heard yesterday that the couple went through a temple wedding ceremony in India in 2011 but did not register their marriage.
Krishnan, who ran a herbal medicine business, came to Singapore in July 2012. The couple separated less than a year later. In June 2013, Madam Boomichelvi told him not to return to the flat, where she lived with their daughter, her older daughter from a previous marriage, and her domestic worker.
On Oct 26, 2013, Krishnan went to the flat to ask the victim to get his long-term visit pass extended but she gave him back his passport and told him to remove his things from the flat. He also asked to see their baby but she closed the door on him.
The next morning, Krishnan tucked a knife under his singlet and waited for her at the lift lobby of her block. About 20 minutes later, when the door opened with the victim inside, he barged into the lift.
He whipped out the knife, pointed it at her and repeated his demands. He grabbed her hair when she refused, as she shouted for help. When the lift door opened on the fifth floor, Krishnan made her walk towards her front door, pointing the knife against her back.
In front of the flat, with her maid and nine-year-old daughter watching through the metal gate, the victim had her throat slashed as she struggled with Krishnan.
As she cupped her throat to stop the blood from gushing from the open wound, Krishnan shouted "Die!" in Tamil before running off.
The maid opened the gate to help her employer while her daughter called the police. Meanwhile, Krishnan called the police to confess his crime. He was arrested at the void deck when police arrived.
<p>The father of a one-year-old infant, desperate to stay in Singapore and to see his daughter, slashed the throat of his estranged Singaporean wife who had rebuffed his demands, the High Court heard yesterday.</p>
A cut-and-paste job was all it took for Kuah Bee Eng to siphon $1.5 million from her employer's bank accounts.
The former accounts assistant, who forged 25 funds transfer forms and transferred the sum to a joint account held by her and her husband, was sentenced to eight years' jail yesterday.
Kuah, 44, was working for Kanetsu Singapore when she committed forgery between Dec 13, 2006 and Oct 3, 2011. Her duties included receiving and making payments on behalf of Kanetsu, and keeping its accounting records. She was also in charge of drawing up funds transfer forms for the approval of Kanetsu's two authorised signatories.
To siphon the money from Kanetsu's Citibank accounts, she needed their signatures, and to get that, she used falsified funds transfer forms, using customers of the company as payees.
After securing the signatures of Kanetsu's authorised signatories, she would cut them out and paste them on fresh funds transfer forms which showed her husband's name as the beneficiary.
She specified the POSB joint account she shares with her husband as the beneficiary's bank account. These forms were then faxed to Citibank for the fund transfers to be processed, after which she transferred the funds from the joint account to her own account. With that, she defrauded Kanetsu of US$935,000 plus $284,051, totalling $1.53 million.
She pleaded guilty to nine forgery charges involving US$700,000. The remaining 16 charges were taken into consideration.
Kuah admitted on Oct 11, 2011 to committing the offences after external auditors uncovered unauthorised transactions in August that year. She claimed to have spent the money on her gambling addiction. She made restitution of $10,283 to Kanetsu, which took civil proceedings to recover the rest of the money from her.
Judgment was entered in default of appearance on Feb 23, 2012. Kuah successfully applied for bankruptcy in August that year.
Since August 2012, monthly instalments of $710 have been made into her bankruptcy estate, making up a total of $35,500. Dividend payments from her bankruptcy estate will be distributed to Kanetsu only after she is discharged from bankruptcy.
Seeking a total jail sentence of eight to 81/2 years to be imposed, Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Jun Hong said Kuah had exploited loopholes in Citibank's processes; there were multiple instances of offending that took place over nearly five years; and the offences were premeditated.
He also said Kuah had abused the trust that her employer had placed in her.
Last month, Lim Hoon Choo, 62, was given 12 years' jail for embezzling $1.3 million from her company over almost four years by forging more than 200 cheques to feed her gambling habit.
The maximum punishment for forgery is 15 years' jail and a fine.
A 56-year-old businessman on trial for murdering his wife's former lover in the back of a borrowed van took the stand yesterday and denied killing the much younger man.
Chia Kee Chen, who faces the death penalty or life imprisonment if convicted of murder, pushed the blame to an individual named "Ali".
Chia told the court that he wanted only to "get back" a thumbdrive containing video clips of his wife having sex with her 37-year-old lover, material analyst Dexmon Chua Yizhi.
Testifying through a Hokkien interpreter, he said he felt "ashamed" after receiving an anonymous call telling him that the victim was sharing the videos with his colleagues.
Chia said that Ali, a Malaysian he had met years ago at a Johor coffee shop, offered to get the thumbdrive for him for RM5,000 (S$1,650).
There is no mention of Ali in the accounts of Chia's two accomplices - his Indonesian worker Febri Irwansyah Djatmiko and his longtime friend Chua Leong Aik.
Chua, 67, drove the van but got out, afraid, when he heard sounds and shouts coming from the back. He is serving a five-year jail term for abduction and causing grievous hurt.
Febri, 34, who returned to Bintan after the killing, gave a statement to local police, fingering Chia as the culprit who had repeatedly hit the victim's face and banged his head against the floor of the van.
Febri said Chia had sought his help to kill a person who had raped his wife. He is wanted by police here but remains at large as Singapore has no extradition treaty with Indonesia.
In contrast, Ali played a vital role in Chia's version of the events surrounding the victim's death between the night of Dec 28 and the early hours of Dec 29, 2013.
Chia said Ali had assured him that he could get the thumbdrive by the end of December.
As for the van, Chia said he had borrowed it on Dec 28 to help Febri transport some fish.
Chia said Febri and Chua were in the van when he received last-minute instructions from Ali to drive to a multi-storey carpark near the victim's Choa Chu Kang flat and park in a specific space.
In the carpark, Ali appeared with his own van, he said.
Some time later, after the victim had parked in the adjacent space and got out of his car, Ali grabbed hold of his neck and pushed him into the back of the van, said Chia.
Chia said he and Febri got into the back as well, while Ali closed the sliding door and instructed them to drive to an army camp in Lim Chu Kang.
Chia said that inside the van, Febri and the victim fought, kicking each other. He said he kicked the victim once in retaliation when the victim kicked him.
Chia said he asked the victim for the thumbdrive but the victim said he did not have it. In his account, he took over the wheel after Chua fled, leaving Febri alone in the back of the van. He said they were fighting but he could not tell who had hit whom.
Chia said he drove to a traffic junction near the camp. Ali then arrived in his van and said he wanted to tie the victim to a tree.
After Febri and Ali dragged the victim to Ali's van, Chia drove away with Febri, he said.
"I just wanted to get the thumbdrive back, the rest of the things I didn't want to know," he said.
Chia said Ali also told him to meet at Lim Chu Kang later that morning to see if he managed to get the thumbdrive. But Ali did not show up, he said.
<p>A 56-year-old businessman on trial for murdering his wife's former lover in the back of a borrowed van took the stand yesterday and denied killing the much younger man.</p>
After stopping at the non-signalled junction, Pow Teck Keng kept a lookout for oncoming traffic before moving off again.
But the 59-year-old bus driver looked only to his right side and did not see Mr Artie Tan, 87, cycling across from the front left side of bus service 196, a court heard.
Pow drove straight into Mr Tan at the junction of Marine Crescent and Marine Parade Road on Sept 27 last year, pinning him under the bus. Mr Tan had to be extricated by firemen, but died later that day.
Yesterday, Pow, a driver of 35 years, was jailed for 15 days and banned from driving for five years.
He pleaded guilty to causing Mr Tan's death by a negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide.
A district court heard that Pow started his shift for the 196 bus route at 7.10am that day at Bedok Bus Interchange. He drove to Clementi Bus Interchange before heading back to Bedok.
At 11.10am, he started his second trip from Bedok Bus Interchange to Clementi.
91-year-old man trapped under bus after getting knocked down
Shortly after, at 11.35am, Pow approached the junction of Marine Crescent and Marine Parade Road.
He stopped his bus on the left lane of Marine Crescent, a two-lane road. The bus was the first vehicle in the lane.
At about the same time, Mr Tan was cycling on the pavement along Marine Parade Road.
Pow's bus was still stationary when Mr Tan cycled, at a slow pace, from the pavement to cross the road in front of the bus.
Pow turned left into Marine Parade Road and crashed into Mr Tan.
Closed-circuit television footage from inside the bus showed Pow had turned his head to the right as the bus was coming to a stop. He kept his head to the right for about 14 seconds, until the bus moved off again.
"If Pow had looked in front or to the left before moving the bus, he would have seen Mr Tan," said Deputy Public Prosecutor Daphne Lim.
"Pow has also been driving the said route for about 10 years and was familiar with the roads on the route," added the DPP.
Mr Tan was taken to hospital with multiple fractures to the skull, trunk and pelvis. He died just after 6pm. Pow lost his job with SBS Transit and is now working as a night watchman, earning an hourly-rated salary.
The maximum penalty for causing the death of a person by doing a negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide is up to two years' jail and a fine.
On the last day of the trial of a 56-year-old businessman accused of murdering his wife's former lover, prosecutors asserted that a mystery man he had sought to pin the crime on did not exist.
Chia Kee Chen denies assaulting the victim, Mr Dexmon Chua Yizhi, and blames someone called Ali. Chia says he hired Ali to get a thumb drive from the former lover which contained sex videos of his wife and claims he last saw the victim being dragged into Ali's van.
Yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Eugene Lee contended that Chia had made Ali up. He noted it was puzzling that Ali could not be contacted by phone but appeared in the accused's account at convenient moments.
The DPP put it to Chia that he had killed Mr Chua because he was angry with the younger man for having had an affair with his wife and wanted revenge.
Testifying through a Hokkien interpreter, Chia conceded calmly: "As a man, who would allow his wife to have an affair with another man? Who would not be angry?"
In the same breath, Chia, who has another wife and three children in Indonesia, continued: "I had not thought of taking revenge against Dexmon." He added that affairs are "very common in Singapore".
Chia faces the death penalty or life imprisonment if convicted of murdering Mr Chua, together with his Indonesian worker Febri Irwansyah Djatmiko, 34, in the back of a borrowed van between Dec 28 and 29 in 2013.
Febri is still at large. A second accomplice, Chua Leong Aik, 67, who drove the van but fled after he was frightened by the sounds coming from the back, is serving a five-year jail term for abduction and causing grievous hurt. Both men did not mention Ali in their statements.
The prosecution's case is that Chia and Febri had forced the victim into the van, tied his ankles and wrists, and assaulted him.
Prosecutors allege that the pair dumped the body at a live-firing area in Lim Chu Kang and washed the van at a nearby fish farm before returning the vehicle.
Chia led police to the victim's decomposed body on Jan 1, 2014. An autopsy found he died from facial injuries so severe that almost every bone in his face had been fractured.
Yesterday, DPP Lee confronted Chia with his police statement on Jan 11, 2014, in which he had described how Febri and he had hit the victim with a hammer.
Chia replied he had just signed whatever was given to him because he could not withstand the cold in the lock-up.
"You are lying as the evidence of blood spatter patterns on the sides, back and ceiling of the van indicates that Dexmon had been assaulted inside the van," said the DPP.
The DPP added that the victim's blood was found on the driver's and front passenger seat, meaning that Febri and Chia had assaulted the victim so badly that his blood had got on them and was later transferred to the seats.
Chia insisted that he did not assault the victim.
His testimony brought the trial to a close after seven days. The verdict is expected on Jan 17 next year.
<p>On the last day of the trial of a 56-year-old businessman accused of murdering his wife's former lover, prosecutors asserted that a mystery man he had sought to pin the crime on did not exist.</p>
Once ranked by Forbes as the 70th richest man in China, Mick Davies, better known as Lan Shili, dabbled in everything from real estate, tourism and telecoms, to even starting an airline. But the fall from grace has been spectacular for the entrepreneur who, with all of 270 yuan, started a company selling computers 31 years ago.
Yesterday, he was given five months' jail for using a foreign travel document, which he knew was not issued to him, as his own. He was released on $80,000 bail pending an appeal against the sentence.
The 56-year-old, who was from China and is now a Singapore citizen, had admitted to producing to an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority officer a Hong Kong passport with the name, Fu Ching, for travel. The offence took place at Changi Airport on July 12 this year.
Davies left a government job at the age of 25 to be an entrepreneur and later became the richest man in Hubei province. In 2005, he started East Star Airlines but it went bankrupt in 2009.
The next year, he was sentenced to four years in jail in China for tax evasion. Because of an illness, he was released early in 2013.
In February this year, Davies left Singapore on a trip for Guangzhou, China, and was detained by the police in March after a former business partner accused him of fraud. After being released on bail, he was told not to leave China and had his passport impounded but, in July, he left by boat and made it to Vietnam.
He then sought help from the Singapore Embassy in Hanoi to get a replacement travel document but was told that some time would be needed to process the application for a document of identity and to verify his particulars.
Davies was unwilling to tell the Vietnamese authorities how he entered the country and paid 55,000 yuan (S$11,300) to a Vietnamese woman for a Hong Kong passport bearing the particulars of Fu Ching, 36, and a plane ticket to return home on July 12. On July 27, he was arrested at Singapore's Immigration and Checkpoints Authority building.
In imposing the five months' jail, District Judge Low Wee Ping took into account his remand period of almost three months.
Two other charges - lying at the Singapore Embassy to get a document of identity and getting a visit pass by stating that he was Fu Ching in the disembarkation form at Changi Airport - were considered.
The maximum penalty for the Passports Act offence is a $10,000 fine and 10 years' jail.
<p>Once ranked by Forbes as the 70th richest man in China, Mick Davies, better known as Lan Shili, dabbled in everything from real estate, tourism and telecoms, to even starting an airline. But the fall from grace has been spectacular for the entrepreneur who, with all of 270 yuan, started a company selling computers 31 years ago.</p>
After his company refused to help him with a loan, Rajagopal Tashnamurthi decided to steal from it.
What he took, however, was worth far more than the $30,000 he needed to pay back loan sharks.
He came up with an elaborate plan to steal an entire cargo container of integrated circuits worth $4.4 million.
The 56-year-old, who was yesterday given 30 months' jail for theft, originally ended up with the $30,000 debt after being forced to go to loan sharks to pay his friends for losing their winning 4D ticket.
The then traffic controller with MES Logistics tried to take a loan from his employer. Its rejection made him unhappy. On Jan 29, his colleague prepared the container movement list for deliveries on Feb 3.
Among them was a cargo container of integrated circuits destined for Texas Instruments.
Rajagopal asked Mr Vinoth Rajendran, an acquaintance, if he could provide transportation services involving 24-footer lorries with tailgates. He promised to recommend Mr Vinoth as MES' permanent transport contractor.
Rajagopal arranged with Mr Vinoth to transport the goods to a temporary warehouse, claiming MES could not cope with its orders.
Mr Vinoth asked his friend, Mr Vijayan Thayanathan, to help as the latter's uncle had a warehouse space in Mandai Estate. Rajagopal met both men on Feb 1 to discuss the job.
He also told an MES driver to collect the cargo container from Tanjong Pagar Port and park it in Changi North Crescent.
The integrated circuits were transported by another logistics company to Mandai Estate where Mr Vinoth and his friend were waiting. The pair loaded the goods into their lorry. Two days later, the theft was reported to the police.
Rajagopal fled the country and was arrested on May 13 when he flew back. He was also fined $50,000, or two months' jail in lieu, for concealing goods at the Mandai Estate warehouse.
A pair of Romanian men were yesterday sentenced to up to three years in jail for stealing $75,000 from ATMs by using cloned cards, with the judge stressing the need for a deterrent sentence.
"The ease of withdrawals of monies from ATMs has come to be an integral part of life in Singapore," said district judge Eddy Tham, describing the case as another disturbing instance of an overseas syndicate specifically targeting Singapore.
There has been at least one such case previously - a Canadian was jailed for 36 weeks in 2014 for using cloned ATM cards to steal $6,800.
The latest case involves Stefan Eugen, 38, who faced 54 charges, and Adrian-Cristian Goncearov, 45, who faced 101 charges of abetment in a conspiracy with a co-conspirator called Mihai in London to steal cash from ATMs in the Republic.
Mechanic Eugen, who was found to be "clearly instrumental'' in the offences, received three years' jail on 10 charges of theft of $1,000 each from United Overseas Bank ATMs while Goncearov's sentence was 21/2 years' jail on 20 charges amounting to $20,000.
The judge said Eugen recruited Goncearov in the criminal enterprise. He was also involved directly in producing the cloned cards.
He had obtained 200 gift cards and learnt from another co-conspirator how to encode credit card data onto the magnetic stripe of the gift cards. He brought the necessary electronic equipment to carry out this task in Singapore.
Deputy public prosecutor Suhas Malhotra said Mihai communicated with Eugen online and later met him in London to give him 40 to 50 gift cards, each with a magnetic stripe, which could be used to withdraw money from ATMs.
Eugen and Goncearov arrived here on Feb 19. They split the encoded cards but could use the cards to withdraw money only from UOB ATMs. They left for Hong Kong on March 1, returning three days later to continue stealing from the ATMs. Police arrested them on March 16 at Changi Airport and seized nearly $42,000.
Judge Tham took into account the high degree of difficulty in detecting such offences and arresting the culprits. "These offences strike at the integrity and security of a well-established and vital medium of financial transactions," he said.
In 2011, a syndicate cheated DBS customers of nearly $1 million by skimming PINs at two ATMs in Bugis. Banks have since tightened security measures, such as by sending SMS alerts for ATM withdrawals over a certain threshold.
But this is a global problem. In May, criminals in Japan used counterfeit cards to withdraw nearly $18 million from ATMs over a three-hour spree.
<p>A pair of Romanian men were yesterday sentenced to up to three years in jail for stealing $75,000 from ATMs by using cloned cards, with the judge stressing the need for a deterrent sentence.</p>
An operations manager of a bus chartering firm who sent SMS messages to a prosecution witness, in a bid to influence her testimony in court, was fined $6,000 yesterday.
Ng Ang Heng, 59, who works for Sin U Lian Travel & Coach, admitted trying to pervert the course of justice during the trial of his colleague Xu Yajie at the State Courts on April 28 last year.
He sent messages through another colleague Toh Lee Hong to the witness, Ms Xu Xiaona, telling her to give a specific testimony.
The court heard last month that on Jan 14, 2014, enforcement officers stopped a private bus along the Pan-Island Expressway and caught the driver driving without a vocational licence.
Land Transport Authority investigations showed it was Sin U Lian's human resource head Xu Yajie who interviewed and hired the driver without the valid licence. Charges were brought against her.
On the day of Yajie's trial on April 28 last year, Ng met Ms Xu Xiaona in court and realised she was a witness.
Worried about the testimony she would give, Ng wanted to tell her it was him who made the final decision to hire the driver.
Just before noon, Ng sent a series of text messages in Chinese to Ms Toh, an accounts executive of the company, and asked her to forward them to Ms Xu.
They informed Ms Xu to say that Ng, and no one else, was in charge of hiring and paying staff.
Ms Xu did not agree with the content of the text messages and did not testify accordingly.
Yajie was later acquitted after the trial.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jasmin Kaur said Ng's actions showed a complete disregard for the court's jurisdiction, and argued that the custodial threshold was crossed in this case. The DPP had sought a jail sentence of six to eight weeks to be imposed.
But District Judge Kessler Soh felt that a high fine was sufficient.
He said Ng believed what he was telling the witness was the truth. There was no threat or coercion, he said. Ng did not do anything for his own benefit and neither did he succeed in getting the witness to change her testimony.
Ng, represented by Mr S.K. Kumar, could have been jailed for up to 3½ years and/or fined for the offence.
On the pretext of discussing breast cancer, an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer molested his female colleague while she was manning a counter at Woodlands Checkpoint during heavy traffic.
Sa'dollah Shukor touched the then 22-year-old victim's breast three times on March 7 last year.
The 59-year-old, who had been suspended from work since October last year, was jailed for 14 months yesterday.
He had claimed trial to three charges and was convicted in October after a four-day trial.
The senior checkpoint inspector, who was deployed as an assistant duty officer, had sat beside the victim, now 24, and started chatting with her about breast cancer.
He asked if she had gone for breast cancer screening.
She found it an uncomfortable topic and said she had, even though this was not true, in the hope he would let it end there.
He then spoke about the causes of breast cancer and how the underwire in the brassiere causes cancer and told her that she should remove her bra when she was at home.
He then touched her breast, cupping and lifting it for three to five seconds.
She was shocked, scared and helpless and did not say anything.
About two minutes later, he touched her again, this time squeezing her breast a bit.
He did it a third time.
Responding to media queries, an ICA spokesman said the authority takes a serious view of errant officers and will not hesitate to ensure they face the full brunt of the law.
"Following the officer's conviction in court, we will commence civil service disciplinary proceedings against him with a view to dismiss him from service," she said.
Sa'dollah, who joined ICA in 2003, could have been jailed for up to two years and fined on each charge of molestation.
<p>On the pretext of discussing breast cancer, an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer molested his female colleague while she was manning a counter at Woodlands Checkpoint during heavy traffic.</p>
A 24-year-old man who pimped six women to provide perverted sexual services went on a crime spree that included breaking the law in eight ways.
Wong Jun Siang even sold soiled bras, panties and socks belonging to the women, aged between 17 and 22, a court heard.
Yesterday, Wong was jailed for four years and fined $2,000. He pleaded guilty to 20 charges consisting of the eight distinct crimes across four separate laws. These include: arranging a sham marriage, procuring a woman for prostitution, living on the earnings of prostitution, and recruiting a child for sexual exploitation. Another 57 charges were considered in sentencing.
A district court heard that Wong advertised his vice operation on online forums and two websites. He would pocket a 20 to 30 per cent cut of the fees paid by customers.
In August last year, Wong persuaded a 19-year-old to work for him. She was paid $350 for one hour of her services by her first client. Between August and Nov 5 last year, she met 20 to 30 customers.
Wong also cheated the women in his vice ring by getting them to sign up for mobile plans and then selling the phones, while they had to continue paying for the plans.
He also stole US$7,000 (S$10,010) from his 19-year-old girlfriend's father. Wong also cheated the father, who paid $1,780 for two phones but got only one.
On May 27, 2014, Wong married Vietnamese Pham Thi Theu, in return for $5,000 from a man, Chee Wee Siang. Wong later falsely told the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority that Pham was staying with him, so she could get a visit pass.
Wong also arranged a sham marriage for another Vietnamese woman for $7,000. He promised Benson Lim Wei Sheng $3,000 to induce him to marry her on June 11, 2014. But Wong never paid him.
In November 2011, Wong was sentenced to a Reformative Training Centre stint on five counts of cheating 14 people of their cellphones. He was convicted of theft and molestation in September 2007, and spent two years in a juvenile home.
SINGAPORE - A former ST Marine chief executive officer and president implicated in one of the largest graft scandals in corporate Singapore was on Friday (Dec 2) sentenced to 10 months' jail and a $100,000 fine.
See Leong Teck, 66, who helmed the apex position at ST Marine, a subsidiary of bluechip engineering giant ST Engineering, is the fifth of seven former ST Marine executives charged in the case to be convicted.
He is the fourth to be sentenced and the third to be given a jail term. His sentence is the heftiest so far.
See had earlier pleaded guilty to one charge each of corruption, falsification of accounts, and failure to act honestly and use reasonable diligence in the discharge of his duties as the director of a company.
See became ST Marine's chief executive in December 1997 and was its president from 1998 until 2008.
Investigations revealed that ST Marine officers had been giving cash bribes to employees of ST Marine's customers since at least 1996, with the approval of its senior management team. At least $24.9 million in kickbacks were paid between 2000 and 2011.
Employees of ST Marine's customers, mainly overseas companies, would request "commissions" for giving ship-repair contracts and other business to the company.
After getting approval from ST Marine's senior management, an employee would submit petty cash claims for "entertainment expenses". Cash cheques issued for these claims would be encashed, and the amount given as a kickback.
In 2000 or 2001, See met with ST Marine's senior management and discussed the increasing payment of cash commissions, then a pre-existing practice. See approved the continuation of the practice.
In early 2004, at another such meeting attended by two members of ST Marine's audit committee, the issue was again brought up. The two were the committee's chairman Peter Yap Kim Kee and ST Engineering's then-chief executive Tan Pheng Hock. Both allegedly did not object to the continued practice.
In late 2003 or early 2004, auditors held two meetings with ST Marine's senior management, after they found claims had been paid without supporting receipts. See told auditors about the kickbacks, saying they were common practice in the industry and necessary. The auditors did not accept the explanation both times.
But See and others in ST Marine's management also agreed to continue using cash vouchers falsely labelled as entertainment expenses.
Mr Tan and Mr Yap were allegedly in agreement to continue the practise.
<p>A former ST Marine chief executive officer and president, See Leong Teck, was yesterday sentenced to 10 months' jail and a $100,000 fine in one of the largest graft scandals in corporate Singapore history.</p>
SINGAPORE - A man was fined $2,000 after kicking a football against a nine-year-old boy's legs three times to teach him a lesson.
Keith Tan Chee Siang, 36, was upset because the boy had earlier kicked the ball which accidentally hit his own young daughter and caused her to fall off her skate scooter.
On Tuesday (Dec 6), Tan, a stockbroker, was also ordered to pay $108 compensation to the victim after he admitted to hurting him at an HDB void deck in Bukit Panjang.
District Judge Salina Ishak said Tan had over-reacted and his actions had caused injuries to the victim.
"As an adult and parent, you ought to have set a better example and not take the matter into your own hand," she told him.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Chew Xin Ying said that on May 25, 2016, the victim was playing football with his friend when he kicked the ball in the direction of Tan's six-year-old daughter, and accidentally hit her on the shoulder.
As a result, she lost her balance, fell off her skate scooter and started crying. Tan pacified her and she subsequently stopped crying.
Intending to teach the boy a lesson, Tan told the boy to pass him the football. He told him to stand still near the wall of the void deck, which the victim did.
Standing 3 to 5m behind the victim, Tan placed the football in front of him and kicked the ball against the victim's legs three times, hitting him on his legs each time.
After every kick, he would ask the victim to pass the football back to him.
DPP Chew said after the second and third kicks, he had asked the boy "pain or not'' but the victim did not reply.
He was scared and nervous even though both his legs hurt.
Tan then walked away without checking on the well-being of the victim.
A second charge of doing a rash act to endanger the personal safety of others was taken into consideration in sentencing. Tan had kicked the football which missed and hit the wall. It rebounded and hit the victim's face, causing him to suffer bodily pain and resulting in a nose bleed.
The boy's mother made a police report that evening.
Tan's lawyer Tan Chee Kiong said his client's daughter suffered an abrasion after she fell off the skate scooter. He said Tan was upset and was genuinely remorseful for having committed the offence on the spur of the moment.
He said Tan had certainly learnt his lesson and realised that he should not have taken the matter into his own hands.
Tan could have been jailed for up to two years and/or fined up to $5,000 for causing hurt.
He was a volunteer and committee member of the Jin Ying Tang Temple, giving his time to help out at events. But behind the veneer of doing good, 45-year-old Lim Kok Tiong proved to be nothing more than a serial burglar.
He broke into the Ang Mo Kio temple's premises more than 60 times, and stole $209,520 worth of property, including almost 800 bottles of liquor and gold-plated shirts meant for deities, to feed his gambling habit.
Yesterday, he paid the price for his crimes when he was sentenced to six years in jail.
Around mid-March, Lim received a flier from a firm that promised cash in return for bottles of hard liquor. He decided to steal the liquor, kept for temple events, from its office. He removed a key to a meeting room and made a duplicate.
On 65 occasions between mid- March and September, he stole 780 bottles of Cordon Bleu. He sold them for between $60,000 and $70,000. One time, he also stole 12 bottles of cognac worth $2,520, and sold them for half the amount.
But bottles of liquor were not his only targets.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Caleb Tan described how on Oct 8, Lim was assisting with an event when he stayed to chat with a few temple committee members till the early hours of the next day.
At about 3am, he excused himself and went to the third-storey office, where he used a screwdriver to pry out a glass panel on the office door. He rejoined the group and stayed till they left at about 5am.
He then went back to the office and unlocked the door through the gap. He entered the office and broke open the metal key box, intending to unlock the cabinets in the office to steal any valuables he could find.
In one of the cabinets, he found a gold hat with a gold-plated shirt worth $17,000, a similar set worth $19,000 and a gold pacifier, two gold anklets and a gold chain worth $15,000. These ornamental items were meant to be placed on the temple idols.
Lim trimmed the oversized portions of the ornamental items to make them smaller, and hid them in a small pouch, which he placed inside a cupboard, intending to remove his loot later.
The temple reported the break-in to the police at 11.16am. Lim was arrested the same day.
He could have been jailed for up to 14 years for housebreaking and theft by night, and up to 10 years for each count of housebreaking and theft.
<p>He was a volunteer and committee member of the Jin Ying Tang Temple, giving his time to help out at events. But behind the veneer of doing good, 45-year-old Lim Kok Tiong proved to be nothing more than a serial burglar.</p>
While needy families were deprived of money meant for them, Chia Kwang Hwee, 33, splurged on luxuries, including spending more than $5,000 on goods from Louis Vuitton boutiques.
For nearly three years, the social service worker pocketed more than $340,000 from the Community Care Endowment Fund (ComCare). He was entrusted with the cash to help the less fortunate.
Chia was generous with himself and his relatives, spending $110,000 on expensive spa and hair salon packages, pricey meals, holidays and branded goods.
He also used about $130,000 to settle debts owed by him and his relatives, and gave family members about $100,000 in cash as gifts.
Yesterday, Chia was convicted of his crimes after he pleaded guilty to 19 charges: two each for criminal breach of trust as a public servant and transferring criminal proceeds, and 15 for accessing a computer to commit criminal breach of trust.
Another 107 similar counts will be considered in sentencing.
The prosecution has asked for six years' jail, while Chia's lawyer asked for not more than 21/2 years' jail. District Judge Lee Poh Choo will deliver the sentence on Dec 22.
The $343,780 that Chia pilfered from November 2011 to August 2014 was meant for 42 low-income and needy individuals and families.
Between June 2009 and June 2013, Chia was a manager at the South East Community Development Council (South East CDC) and from July 2013, a manager at the Social Service Office (SSO) in Geylang Serai. At both workplaces, he was responsible for disbursing ComCare monies.
Between Jan 1, 2012, and Dec 31, 2013, Chia collectedabout 300 cheques for $197,060, issued by South East CDC or Geylang Serai SSO on behalf of beneficiaries.
Instead of handing them to the beneficiaries, he encashed the cheques and deposited the money into his bank account.
The cheques had been made out to "cash" as the beneficiaries who were supposed to receive them did not have bank accounts.
In November 2012, while at South East CDC, Chia also took on the role of team leader and was granted access rights to a computer system used to administer ComCare funds to beneficiaries.
He also had system administrator rights and could also reset the passwords of other account users.
Between December 2013 and August 2014, while at Geylang Serai SSO, Chia entered his bank account details into the system instead of the beneficiaries'.
He also misused his administrator rights to reset the passwords of 15 social service officers' accounts, and then used his colleagues' accounts to approve and transfer $67,100 in beneficiaries' payouts into his own account.
In a press statement sent out immediately after Chia was charged on Aug 3 this year, the Ministry of Social and Family Development said it was contacted by a beneficiary who said he had not been getting his payouts.
Chia was suspended from his duties on Aug 19, 2014, after his crimes were discovered. Police seized 21 branded items worth nearly $30,000 from his home. He had bought them with criminal proceeds.
<p>While needy families were deprived of money meant for them, Chia Kwang Hwee, 33, splurged on luxuries, including spending more than $5,000 on goods from Louis Vuitton boutiques.</p>
A man who accepted cash to slash the face of a married man's love rival was part of a well-planned mafia-like attack that also involved five others.
Nur Muhammad Irwan Mohd Ngat, 29, was indirectly working for the married man who wanted to beat up the boyfriend of a woman he had a relationship with and supported financially.
Businessman Lim Hong Liang, 52, found out in early April that Ms Audrey Chen Ying Fang, 25, was having a relationship with Mr Joshua Koh Kian Yong.
He asked his nephew, driver Ron Lim De Mai, 25, to arrange for the 32-year-old victim to be assaulted.
Irwan, who slashed Mr Koh near an eatery in Little India on April 30, was yesterday sentenced to 141/2 years' jail and 16 strokes of the cane for grievously hurting the victim and enhanced drug trafficking.
Police had found Ecstasy pills and methamphetamine when they arrested him in an Hougang apartment on May 3. He was sentenced to the minimum 10 years and 10 strokes for drug trafficking.
He was also sentenced for driving while under a court ban and will be prohibited from driving for eight years after his release.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Houston Johannus said the cruel and unprovoked attack on Mr Koh reeked of mafia-like tactics.
He added that the senior Lim was in a relationship with Ms Chen and gave her the use of a Mercedes-Benz fitted with a Global Positioning System (GPS) which he could track remotely.
Ron Lim approached Ong Hock Chye, 46, a mover, who said he would get someone to assault the target. Ong suggested slashing the person's face in return for payment.
Ong then called his former prison mate, Mohammad Amin Aman, 46, who agreed to do the job.
Amin roped in Irwan, who brought along his girlfriend, Nur Atika Fauziana Sherhan, 20, to the meeting with the others.
It was agreed that $5,000 would be paid and there would be an upfront payment of $1,000.
Amin was given $1,000 and a photograph of Mr Koh.
Ron Lim then keyed in his uncle's online GPS tracking account user name and password on Atika's mobile phone to enable her to track the location of the Mercedes.
Later that day, Ron Lim handed the remaining $4,000 to Ong.
The sum was to be given to Irwan and Amin after they carried out the planned assault.
Mr Johannus said, on April 29, Irwan recruited Juhari Ab Karim, 34, to help attack the victim.
After picking up Juhari, Irwan drove a rented car to Oasia Hotel Novena where the Mercedes was.
At about midnight, Irwan, Amin and Juhari saw Ms Chen and Mr Koh at the carpark after they had left the hotel in Sinaran Drive.
The couple headed to Huay Kwang Thai Kitchen in Townshend Road for supper. The trio followed in the rented car.
As instructed, Juhari moved in and punched Mr Koh on the head. The victim staggered and fled, with Juhari in pursuit.
Mr Koh was stopped by Irwan and Amin who were behind a pillar. Juhari caught up with Mr Koh and punched him repeatedly. Irwan slashed the victim on the lower part of his face. The trio then fled.
Juhari, who received $600, has been jailed 15 months for causing hurt and being a member of an unlawful society. Amin's share was $2,000 while Irwan got $2,400.
Said DPP Johannus: "Singapore is not and should not be the Chicago of the 1920s. Hence, the violent, vicious and lawless nature of such an attack on the victim has no place in any lawful society, and ought to be met with a deterrent penalty to ensure violence on this scale does not take root in Singapore."
Atika has been sentenced to reformative training.
The cases against the rest are in pre-trial conference stages.
<p>A man who accepted cash to slash the face of a married man's love rival was part of a well-planned mafia-like attack that also involved five others.</p>
An aggressive crowd of up to 100 people in a Geylang back lane prompted a plainclothes policeman on an anti-vice raid to draw his revolver for his safety, a court heard.
The sergeant pointed the revolver's laser at the crowd, but a 48-year-old man, who was undeterred, challenged the officer to shoot him.
Yesterday, Ng Bing Hui, a 22-year-old man who was part of the unruly crowd, was jailed for 10 weeks after he pleaded guilty to being part of an unlawful assembly.
At about 9.45pm on July 24 last year, five plainclothes officers from Geylang Neighbourhood Police Centre on anti-vice duties saw an 18-year-old promoting a game of Si Gor Luck, or Sic Bo (a game of dice), at a makeshift gaming table in the back lane between Lorong 14 and Lorong 16 in Geylang.
Suspecting that he was promoting illegal gambling, they used force to handcuff him as he resisted arrest and tried to flee.
While the officers tried to arrest him, a crowd of about 80 to 100 people gathered.
Some of them were sympathetic to the suspect and became agitated, and even shouted at the policemen to release him.
The crowd then moved towards the officers, ignoring their repeated instructions to move back.
Five people - Ng, Ho Hock Hui, 48, Kee Hong Yong, 30, and at least two other unknown persons in the crowd - shouted vulgarities and gesticulated aggressively towards the policemen.
In order to maintain a safe distance from the crowd, the officers moved the teenager and stood with him behind the makeshift gaming table.
But the crowd surrounded them and continued behaving in a threatening manner.
Ng then moved towards the front of the crowd and shouted vulgarities while pointing his finger at the policemen.
While he was gesturing at them, his hand came into contact with the gambling table, flipping it over.
Kee then picked up the metal table stand and waved it at the policemen in a threatening manner.
The officers continued retreating until they were backed up against a wall.
Undeterred, the mob continued moving towards them, even though several uniformed policemen had arrived and were trying to disperse it.
Fearing for their safety, the sergeant drew his revolver and pointed it at the crowd.
His finger was not on the trigger.
This prompted the crowd to step back, but Ho stepped forward and walked towards him.
He shouted vulgarities and challenged the policeman to shoot him.
Instead, the officer put his revolver back in its holster.
Shortly after, more policemen arrived and dispersed the crowd.
The incident was partially captured on closed-circuit television cameras.
Ng, Kee and Ho were arrested in the area on the same night.
Four out of five of the plainclothes officers on the anti-vice raid had minor injuries from the confrontation with the crowd.
They were given one to two days of medical leave.
Kee, Ho, and Harold Ho Kuo Lung, the teenager accused of promoting illegal gambling, have yet to be dealt with.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Dwayne Lum and Stephanie Koh asked for three to four months' jail for Ng. Mr Lum said: "In the present case, the net effect of the entire unruly mob served to intimidate and threaten the lives and safety of the police officers carrying out their duties that night."
Ng's pro bono lawyer, Ms Cheryl Ng, asked for one month in jail for Ng, who works as a deliveryman and was exempted from national service owing to his low IQ.
