Foreign talent's contributions to Singapore

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Woman who instigated 8-year-old stepdaughter to spike her birth mother’s drink gets jail​

Nadine Chua

Jan 12, 2023

SINGAPORE - A woman was sentenced to a year’s jail on Thursday after her eight-year-old stepdaughter tried to spike her birth mother’s drink with poison at her instigation.
The 32-year-old Vietnamese national cannot be named due to a gag order protecting the child’s identity.
At the time of the offences, she was married to a 44-year-old man. The victim is the man’s ex-wife. The girl is their child. The couple finalised their divorce in 2017 and in 2018, the man married again.
The girl had a close relationship with her stepmother.
The two women, however, had a highly acrimonious relationship as the girl’s birth mother blamed the stepmother for the breakdown of her marriage.
“The victim occasionally sent insulting text messages to the accused and posted comments of a similar nature targeting the accused on Facebook. Consequently, the accused became increasingly stressed and angry with the victim,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor Kwang Jia Min.
On Jan 4, 2020, the stepmother asked the girl how she would address her in the victim’s presence. When the girl said she would call her “jie jie”, which means sister in Mandarin, she was upset as she believed she treated the girl like her daughter.

She then threw a tantrum and told the girl not to speak to her any more as the girl did not love her. The girl became distressed at this and asked how she could make it up to her stepmother, said the DPP.
At the time, the stepmother had in her possession some tablets which she had bought from a pharmacy in Vietnam as she previously experienced pain and had trouble sleeping after undergoing surgery in 2019.
As she was angry at what the girl had said and at what the victim had said about her, she came up with the idea to get the girl to spike the victim’s drink with one of the tablets, which were found to contain bromazepam, a poison.

DPP Kwang said the consumption of bromazepam can lead to impaired memory, impaired visual information processing and sensory data, and impaired psychomotor performance, among other things.
“While bromazepam is not known to cause death, there are a host of adverse reactions in the usual therapeutic doses,” she added.
A few days after she thought of it, the stepmother crushed a tablet and put it in a plastic packet before instructing the girl to spike the victim’s drink at an opportune time.
She also suggested that the girl could kill her own mother once she fell unconscious by either turning her to lay face-down so she would not be able to breathe, or by suffocating her with a pillow.

That same month, the victim found the packet of powder in the girl’s bag. When she questioned her daughter, she denied knowing what the powder was.
On Jan 25, 2020, at around 5am, the girl woke up and told her mother that she was thirsty.
The victim poured a cup of water for her daughter, who then put some of the powder into the cup and asked her mother to drink it.
When the victim saw some foam in the spiked water, she emptied it, thinking that the girl might have spat in the cup. The girl then prepared another cup of water, poured more of the powder into it and asked her mother to drink it.
The victim became suspicious when she saw a thin layer of powder at the bottom of the cup. She did not drink it as she realised the powder in the cup came from the packet of powdered substance she saw in her daughter’s bag.
When the victim confronted her daughter about it, she admitted that her stepmother had instigated her to spike her drink. The victim then called the police.
Before meting out the sentence, District Judge Lim Wee Ming said the woman’s instigation of the child to commit this offence against her own mother is aggravating.
“The accused was such a strong influence over the child that the child made not one, but two attempts to poison the victim by spiking her water,” he added.
The woman asked for her sentence to be deferred to Jan 26 as she needs time to finalise caregiving arrangements for her own child and to spend time with her family during Chinese New Year.
Those convicted of causing hurt by means of poison may be jailed for up to 10 years, fined, or caned.

 

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Executive director of migrant rights group Home suspended over misappropriation allegations​

Home said Ms Deshi Gill was suspended so that the group could conduct an internal inquiry. PHOTO: HOME: HUMANITARIAN ORGANISATION FOR MIGRATION ECONOMICS/FACEBOOK

Kok Yufeng
Transport Correspondent

Jan 17, 2023

SINGAPORE - The Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home) has suspended its executive director, Ms Deshi Gill, following allegations that she misappropriated funds from the migrant worker advocacy group.
In a statement posted on its social media channels on Tuesday, Home said Ms Gill was suspended so that Home could conduct an internal inquiry. Preliminary investigations showed there was a basis for suspected misconduct, the group added.
Home said it has notified the relevant authorities. Its board and staff members will provide all necessary information as part of any investigations that may be carried out.
Tuesday’s statement came after allegations were posted online accusing Ms Gill of making thousands of dollars of claims from Home without documentary proof of the expenses. The allegations were not substantiated.
Home said that it is currently reviewing its governance controls to ensure similar lapses do not occur again.
“We would like to sincerely thank all members of the public and donors who have supported us over the years,” the group added.
It said: “Home’s commitment to advance the migrant worker cause remains unwavering. During this time, all our operations and services continue to function, and we will continue to strive to improve the well-being and dignity of migrant workers in Singapore.”

 

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Six months’ jail, fine for 2 women from China who overstayed in S’pore for more than a decade​

Samuel Devaraj

Jan 25, 2023

SINGAPORE – Despite getting their employment passes revoked, two Chinese nationals continued staying in Singapore illegally.
On Wednesday, Wei JianQin, 56, and Chen Mei, 44, pleaded guilty to one charge under the Immigration Act each, and were given the maximum jail sentence of six months and a fine of $2,000.
Both women were arrested on Jan 9 by Immigration and Checkpoints Authority officers in the same HDB unit in Bedok North Road after they were not able to produce any evidence to prove that they were staying in the country legally.
The court heard that Wei held an Employment Pass that was valid for one year from April 18, 2007, to work as a waitress. Chen was issued a pass valid for two years from July 17, 2009, to work as a general worker.
The Ministry of Manpower cancelled Wei’s pass on Sept 27, 2007, and Chen’s pass on Aug 5, 2009, and they were required to depart Singapore the day their passes were revoked.
Court documents did not state the reasons for the cancellations.
Wei remained in Singapore illegally for 15 years, three months and 13 days, while Chen did so for 13 years, five months and four days.

Noting that they had overstayed for a very long time, District Judge Lorraine Ho said she took into account the pair’s early guilty pleas and their clean criminal records, when meting out the sentences.
Apart from the maximum jail sentence, they could have been fined up to $6,000 for the Immigration Act offence.
In December, a 58-year-old Chinese national who had lived and worked in Singapore illegally for 15 years, from 2007 to 2022, was sentenced to a year’s jail and fined $3,000 after he pleaded guilty to two charges under the Immigration Act.
He was deported in November 2006 after he was caught entering the country without a valid pass, and was banned from entering Singapore without permission from the immigration authorities.
But he returned illegally after he accepted a friend’s offer to get him here on a motorboat for $20,000.

 

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Two young girls sexually exploited in their homes in separate cases​

Samuel Devaraj

Jan 31, 2023

SINGAPORE – A Vietnamese man who was invited to stay at a woman’s condominium unit raped her 11-year-old daughter.
Separately, a Malaysian man molested his girlfriend’s daughter, who was six years old at that time, after moving in with them.
Both offenders were sentenced on Monday.
The Vietnamese, who pleaded guilty to a rape charge, was given nine years’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane.
The Malaysian pleaded guilty to two charges related to committing assault with intention of outraging the modesty of someone below 14. He was sentenced to 32 months’ jail and three strokes of the cane.
Both cannot be named as there are gag orders to protect their victims’ identities.
After arriving in Singapore in 2019, the Vietnamese man had his work permit cancelled on March 7, 2020, said deputy public prosecutors Victoria Ting and Matthew Choo. As he could not return to Vietnam due to the Covid-19 pandemic, he was given a special pass that allowed him to stay here until Sept 6, 2021.

During the pandemic, the victim’s mother, who ran a restaurant in Geylang, offered fellow Vietnamese workers stranded in Singapore free food, and the accused started going to the restaurant.
The man and his victim became acquainted as the girl would help out at the restaurant after school.
In March 2021, after the man was asked to leave the shelter he was staying in, the victim’s mother allowed him to stay in the restaurant. But in July 2021, the man was told he could not stay there as he was unvaccinated.

Out of goodwill, the victim’s mother allowed him to stay with her and the girl in a two-room condo unit she was renting in Bedok.

On or about Aug 8, 2021, the Vietnamese told the girl he had romantic feelings for her despite knowing that she was 11 years old. Then some time in August, the man raped the girl in the condo unit.
The victim’s mother found out when a restaurant worker living in the unit told her that he suspected the girl and the offender were romantically involved.
When he was confronted, the Vietnamese admitted to having touched the victim inappropriately. The girl then confirmed that he had raped her.
The mother made a police report and the man was arrested on Aug 26, 2021.
In the other case, the Malaysian man started a relationship with his victim’s mother in 2010, and soon moved in to live with the victim’s family, said DPP Wong Shiau Yin.

Some time in 2011, the man asked the victim to go with him into the toilet. There, he pulled down his trousers and rubbed his private parts against hers for about 10 minutes. Her mother was asleep at the time. DPP Wong said: “The victim did not understand what was happening and therefore did not shout for help. Instead, she kept silent throughout the ordeal.”
But her mother suddenly appeared outside the toilet and told the victim to leave the room.
DPP Wong said the victim did not know what transpired between the offender and her mother, but remembered seeing him kneeling on the floor begging for forgiveness.
Some time later, the man also tried to perform oral sex on the victim.
The offences were brought to light when the victim, who is now 17 years old and suffers from major depressive disorder, confided in an intern at a clinical and health psychology centre, who then referred the matter to the Ministry of Social and Family Development. A police report was made.

 

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Actresses among those affected by ‘heartless con artist’ who cheated 2 other victims of more than $2.1m​

Two prominent media personalities, Chen Liping (left) and Lin Meijiao, gave Ms Soh a total of $460,000 to invest with Wu Hong. PHOTOS: LEE JIA WEN, SHIN MIN DAILY NEWS

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Feb 15, 2023

SINGAPORE - A woman whom the prosecution described as a “heartless con artist” cheated two people out of more than $2.1 million by using fictitious investment schemes involving foreign currency exchange.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jonathan Tan said in his submissions: “They were so deceived that they not only parted with their own funds, but also obtained funds from their friends and family due to a genuine belief in the accused’s false representations.
“The accused used (the monies) for her own expenses and did not make any restitution to the victims, causing them to suffer debilitating losses that they are still grappling with to date.”
Wu Hong, 41, was sentenced to 12 years’ jail on Tuesday. District Judge Soh Tze Bian had earlier convicted her of five cheating charges after a trial.
The Chinese national, who committed the offences between 2016 and 2019, dishonestly induced Mr Tam Kwong Yoeng, 50, to deliver a total of more than $1.4 million and duped Ms Soh Choon Heong, 61, into handing over $734,000.
Wu, who has no known employment, got to know Mr Tam at a pub in 2013, and was introduced to Ms Soh by a fengshui master on an unspecified date.
DPP Tan said Wu deceived them with fictitious investment schemes to provide visitors who are Chinese nationals with Singapore currency for their expenditure here, particularly for gambling in local casinos.

“She had enticed them to ‘invest’ with her by purporting to offer attractive returns,” he added.
According to court documents, two prominent media personalities, identified as Tan Lee Peng (Chen Liping) and Lim Mooi Keow (Lin Meijiao), gave Ms Soh a total of around $460,000 to invest with Wu. The prosecutor told Judge Soh that Wu’s representations were false because the purported investment schemes did not exist.
DPP Tan added: “She also had no explanation (as to) why she failed to provide any information about her alleged clients on whose behalf she claimed to have gambled for, both in her statements and at trial.”

During the trial, Mr Tam testified that Wu had dishonestly duped him into handing over the monies by using two schemes. He also said he persisted in giving money to Wu because he trusted her.

DPP Tan told the court: “In fact, this was why he failed to keep any formal record of his transactions with her.”
The DPP added that even after Mr Tam did not receive the returns as promised and felt suspicious, he still trusted Wu to return the funds. But he later recorded their phone conversations as evidence because she was evading him.
Mr Tam finally made a police report against Wu in January 2018.
Ms Soh testified that she had also trusted Wu. She alerted the police in February 2020.
DPP Tan said Wu had cast aspersions against the pair during the trial, claiming that they were framing her.
For each count of cheating, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.
In response to Straits Times queries, Lim’s manager said: “On her behalf, we’d like to thank everyone for your concern. As she’d like to close this chapter and move past this, we’ll not be taking on any interviews. Thank you.”

 

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Trading firm director linked to import of over 1,700 pieces of elephant tusks gets 10 months’ jail​

Dao Thi Boi was convicted in 2022 of an offence under the Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act. PHOTO: ST FILE

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Feb 15, 2023

SINGAPORE - A woman, who was a director of a trading company that imported a 40-foot container containing an unprecedented haul of 1,787 pieces of elephant tusks, was given 10 months’ jail on Wednesday.
After a trial, Dao Thi Boi, now 40, was convicted in 2022 of an offence under the Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act.
At the time of the offence, the Vietnamese woman, who is also a Singapore permanent resident, was the owner of VNSG Trading as well as a director at Song Hong Trading & Logistics.
On March 3, 2018, an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer on duty at the Pasir Panjang Scanning Station scanned the container. Its permit stated that it contained 203 packages of groundnuts.
The ICA officer instead saw images of items resembling animal horns inside the container, and it was detained for investigation.
Sixty-one bags containing 1,787 pieces of suspected elephant tusks, weighing 3,480 kg in total, were found.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Lee Zu Zhao had earlier said in his submissions that Boi not only turned a blind eye, but actively and knowingly assisted in the dishonest business practices by her client - a man named Su Thien.


According to court documents, Boi handled about seven consignments from Nigeria to Singapore on behalf of Su Thien through her companies between 2017 and March 5, 2018.
As the sole person operating Song Hong Trading & Logistics, Boi had to be fully aware that the company had imported the container containing the elephant tusks, said DPP Lee.
The prosecutor added: “Just because Song Hong was not involved in the initial stuffing of the container where the elephant tusks were found... or did not participate in the shipping out of the elephant tusks from Nigeria, does not mean that Song Hong did not cause the elephant tusks to be imported into Singapore.
“In fact, the evidence shows that Song Hong played an essential role, and that the elephant tusks could not have been imported into Singapore without Song Hong’s involvement.”
However, he noted that Boi did not reap significant financial benefits from the offence.
Defence lawyer Wee Pan Lee told the court on Wednesday that his client intends to appeal against her conviction and sentence.
Boi’s bail was then set at $16,000.

 

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Woman jailed for forging cheques when she was working for temple association, obtaining over $200k​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Feb 16, 2023

SINGAPORE - A woman was working as an administrative clerk and accountant for the Hong San Temple Association when she forged multiple cheques to misappropriate more than $200,000 in total.
Chinese national Li FanFang, who gambled away all of her ill-gotten gains, had obtained the monies by fraudulently altering the payee portion of the cheques on 16 occasions between April 2019 to March 2020.
Feeling guilty, she wrote an apology letter to the temple staff on March 10, 2020, to come clean and fled to Hong Kong in a bid to evade arrest.
But Li, who has a three-year-old son and is married to a Singaporean, returned to Singapore on March 16, 2020 as she missed her family.
Following her husband’s advice, she surrendered to the police on March 25, 2020.
Li, 32, was sentenced to three years’ jail on Thursday after she pleaded guilty to a forgery charge.
She had been entrusted with the temple’s cheque book while working for the place of worship in Defu Lane 12 near Hougang Avenue 3.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Chong Kee En said that the temple’s funds came from donations.
He also said that signatures from officials such as the temple’s secretary and its treasurer were needed to disburse cheques from its bank account.
The DPP added: “The accused had a gambling addiction. Some time in 2019, she decided to use the temple’s monies (to gamble). She recalled seeing a pen with erasable ink and was struck with the idea to use it to obtain the temple’s monies through the use of cheques.”

Li then bought such a pen to commit her offences.
From April 27, 2019 to March 10, 2020, she prepared cheques that were addressed as payable to legitimate vendors or companies. The names of these payees were written using the pen.
After obtaining the necessary signatures, Li erased the names of the vendors and companies on the cheques, and replaced them with her own name.
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The ill-gotten gains were later disbursed into her own bank account.
DPP Chong said: “The accused gambled away all of (the monies) playing baccarat at the Marina Bay Sands casino. Although she felt guilty for stealing the monies, she continued to utilise the scheme...to defraud the temple... Records showed (that) she entered the casino on an almost daily basis during this time.”
He also told the court that the temple’s secretary and treasurer did not suspect anything as they trusted her.
Li later fled to Hong Kong, only to return on March 16, 2020.
Four days later, she texted the temple’s secretary, saying that she was willing to pay back $1,000 per month and the police could be alerted if she failed to keep her word.
The man lodged a police report later that day.

 

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Nearly 4 years’ jail for scammer linked to cheating cases involving more than $436k​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Feb 24, 2023

SINGAPORE - A woman who hatched a plan to obtain “loans” from others by using branded handbags as collateral managed to cheat multiple victims of $436,300 in total.
But Thai national Tangngam Nonthacha, 35, had no intention to repay the loans or use the bags as collateral.
On Thursday, she was sentenced to three years and nine months’ jail after she pleaded guilty to 24 cheating charges involving $102,300.
Another 178 cheating charges linked to the remaining amount were considered during sentencing.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Tay Zhi Jie told the court that Tangngam came to Singapore and got married in 2009. Details about the man were not disclosed in court documents.
In 2015, she suffered losses from a failed hawker business and went on to work at a Thai discotheque, earning about $2,000 to $2,500 per month.
Her marriage later broke down and she got divorced. Tangngam moved away from her former husband and rented a room for herself. The man then took care of their three children.

Around 2018, Tangngam ran into financial trouble as she had to settle multiple expenses including her rent of $1,200 per month. She also gave her children between $500 and $1,000 monthly.
She later hatched a plan to cheat others of cash.
DPP Tay said: “The accused advertised her loans on social media platform Facebook by posting a photograph of a branded handbag and stating the loan amount as well as repayment amount - being loan amount plus interest - on the same post.

“The accused had no intention to repay the advertised loan or to use the advertised branded handbag as a collateral for the loan.”
According to court documents, Tangngam was not earning enough to repay the loans when she posted the advertisements.
She also did not have most of the advertised handbags in her possession.

Instead, she had used photographs of branded handbags which she found on e-commerce platform Carousell to create her advertisements.
The prosecutor added: “The accused specifically chose to use branded handbags as collateral in her scheme because she knew that, in general, Thai ladies had a liking for branded handbags.”
Between 2018 and 2019, 24 victims - all of them Thai nationals in Singapore - chanced upon Tangngam’s Facebook loan advertisements and became interested in lending money to her.
Tangngam then cheated them of $102,300.
Court documents did not disclose how her offences came to light, but she was later charged in court in 2022.
During investigations, Tangngam claimed to have made partial repayment of $217,500 to the victims, as interest and capital repayment for her purported loans.
Investigations have confirmed that 14 victims received at least $78,400 from her.
For each count of cheating, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

 

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Malaysian man gets 6 months’ jail for illegally harbouring Chinese national​

ICA reiterated to check the status of prospective foreign tenants to ensure they are staying in Singapore legally. PHOTO: ST FILE
Fatimah Mujibah

Feb 28, 2023

SINGAPORE - A Malaysian man was given a jail term of six months for illegally harbouring a Chinese woman, said the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA).
Woo Chee Kit, 35, and another man Wang Xiaozeng, a Singaporean, had helped the woman, He Yan, 36, find a rental unit in Oxley Rise, the ICA said in a statement on Tuesday.
Wang, 30, was sentenced to 44 weeks’ jail on Feb 16, and fined $1,400 for sub-letting rental units to offenders involved in vice activities.
Both Woo and Wang committed an offence of harbouring an immigration offender under the Immigration Act by not checking He Yan’s identification documents and checking if her stay in the country was valid.
He Yan was arrested by ICA officers at a unit in Oxley Rise on Dec 21, 2020 for unlawfully remaining in Singapore after her Special Pass expired on Oct 5, 2020.
A Special Pass is issued to foreigners for specific purposes, such as helping in investigations, attending court and if the person residing in Singapore is stateless.
ICA investigations found that He Yan had sought Woo’s assistance to find a place to stay. Woo, who was a work permit holder, told He Yan that he would be able to arrange for her to stay in a rental unit.

He then got Wang and a housing agent to sign a tendency agreement on her behalf, in return for a one-time fee and monthly service commission.
The agent represented the owner of the unit. Woo told the agent that he would be staying in the unit and named himself the occupier on the agreement.
He Yan agreed to the terms because she was unable to rent a place on her own as an illegal immigrant. She moved into the unit on Nov 1, 2020.
ICA reiterated that people who wish to rent out their premises need to check the status of prospective foreign tenants to ensure they are staying in Singapore legally.
Anyone renting out their premises should also check the tenant’s original immigration/ work pass, cross-check details against the pass and original passport, and verify the validity of a pass by checking with the issuing authority.
The Manpower Ministry issues work passes and ICA issues immigration passes like the Student’s Pass and Long-Term Visit Pass.
Anyone found guilty of recklessly and knowingly harbouring overstayers and/or illegal immigrants can be sentenced to a jail term of at least six months and up to two years, and a fine of at least $6,000.
Anyone found guilty of negligently harbouring overstayers and/or illegal immigrants can be sentenced to a fine of at least $6,000 and an imprisonment term for at least a year, or both.

 

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3 years’ jail for ex-property agent who made off with client’s money and caused over $1m loss​

The offender, Liu Siyu, 32, was sentenced to three years’ jail on Thursday. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

March 2, 2023

SINGAPORE - A property agent, engaged to help in the purchase of a condominium unit, misappropriated nearly $600,000 of her client’s money meant for parties including the property developer.
This led to a failure to complete the purchase under an option to purchase (OTP) agreement, despite time extensions.
The developer then exercised its right to terminate the OTP and forfeited nearly $1.2 million of payments, which the client had earlier made. To date, the client has not been able to recover the amount.
The offender, Liu Siyu, 32, was sentenced to three years’ jail on Thursday. She pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one count each of criminal breach of trust involving nearly $343,000 and forgery.
Another criminal breach of trust charge involving the remaining amount was considered during sentencing.
Both Liu and the 32-year-old client are Chinese nationals. The prosecution said that Liu was a property agent with ERA Realty Network from 2015 to 2017.
Her name could not be found on the Council for Estate Agencies’ public register in an online search on Thursday.

Liu, who is a Singapore permanent resident, first met the client some time before 2015 when they were studying in Britain.
In November 2015, the client and her father engaged Liu as a property agent to represent them in the purchase of a unit at The Crest condominium in Prince Charles Crescent near Alexandra Road.
As the unit that cost $1,785,000 was under construction at the time, the father-and-daughter pair were to pay developer Wingcrown Investment in instalments, based on a payment schedule in a sale and purchase agreement (SPA).

The client would then transfer funds for the unit’s purchase to Liu’s bank account. Liu was tasked to use the monies to pay the developer on her client’s behalf.
Initially, Liu paid the first 40 per cent of the purchase price to the developer on time.
She was also timely in paying $315,900 to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore for items such as the buyer’s stamp duty.

Liu later began to fall behind in payments to the developer, leading to a shortfall of nearly $343,000 between Sept 14, 2016 and March 31, 2018.
Within that period, Liu dishonestly misappropriated the amount and used her ill-gotten gains to buy Louis Vuitton, Christian Louboutin and Hermes luxury goods.
Due to the non-payment of several items of the payment schedule, the SPA was annulled on March 12, 2018.
Accordingly, the developer forfeited $379,195.58 from the progress payments made for the property purchase up to that point, with a balance sum of $838,354.42 to be refunded to the client and her father.
Following negotiations to continue with the property’s purchase via a private treaty sale, the developer issued a fresh OTP to the pair dated April 17, 2018.
Among other things, the unit’s price was increased to $1.9 million and the purchase had to be completed by June 26, 2018.
During this time, the client instructed Liu to issue cashier’s orders for the purchase.
On five occasions between April 2 and 27, 2018, Liu used messaging application WeChat to send the client images of cashier’s orders, each for between $35,700 and $442,500. But checks later revealed that these cashier’s orders did not exist.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Samuel Chew said: “The accused subsequently admitted that these were fake cashier’s orders that she had created by editing images of cashier’s orders with her handphone.
“The accused admitted that she did so to stop (the cient) from chasing her to make payment for the property purchase.”

On Nov 20, 2018, due to a failure to complete the property purchase under the OTP despite time extensions, the developer forfeited nearly $1.2 million from the payments that the client had made up to that point.
Court documents did not disclose how Liu’s offences were discovered, but she made full restitution of nearly $600,000 in 2019.
Defence lawyer Riyach Hussain told the court on Tuesday that his client is remorseful.
Liu’s bail was set at $15,000 on Thursday, and she is expected to surrender herself at the State Courts on April 3 to begin serving her sentence.

 

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Company director gets 12 weeks’ jail after duping trade union into handing over nearly $14k​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Mar 8, 2023

SINGAPORE - The sole director of a consultancy firm worked together with its general manager to dupe trade union Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) into delivering nearly $14,000 in Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) grants.
Malaysian Lim De Xian, 33, from 7W Consultancy, was sentenced to 12 weeks’ jail on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to two counts of cheating. Two charges for falsification of accounts were considered during sentencing.
Lim and Singaporean Xu Shaowen, 33, conspired to cheat SNEF into disbursing grants by having Xu falsely declare an inflated salary in his PCP application sometime around Dec 1, 2017. This was to maximise the amount of grants 7W Consultancy could obtain.
PCP aims to help mid-career professionals, managers, executives and technicians, who are Singaporeans or permanent residents, to undergo skills conversion to move into new jobs. Participating firms would then receive salary support and course fee funding.
The initiative was funded by Workforce Singapore (WSG) and administered by SNEF.
Lim and Xu agreed that the latter would declare a monthly salary of $5,800 in his PCP application, when in fact he earned around $1,250. Xu later submitted the PCP application form and supporting documents to SNEF via email.
SNEF was then duped into disbursing nearly $14,000 in total.

On May 20, 2020, a WSG officer alerted the police that 7W Consultancy had made false declarations in a PCP application.
Xu and Lim were subsequently charged in court in May 2022.
On Wednesday, Lim’s defence lawyer, Mr S. S. Dhillon pleaded for leniency and said that Lim is remorseful.
The lawyer for Dhillon & Panoo law firm added: “He... will not run foul of the law again. Lim will also treasure any second chances given to him.”
Xu was sentenced to 13 weeks’ jail in November 2022, after he pleaded guilty to one count each of cheating and falsification of accounts.
7W Consultancy has since made a full restitution of $13,995 to WSG.
Separately, Lim and Xu also worked together to try dupe SNEF of items, including a salary grant of $11,760 to 7W Consultancy. However, this PCP application was withdrawn before SNEF disbursed any grants.

According to court documents, the two men and their then-colleague Chinese national Chen Xianyi, 32, entered into a conspiracy to cheat SNEF around April 11, 2018.
The DPP said that Mr Chen’s monthly salary was falsely inflated to $5,600 in his PCP application. His actual salary was not disclosed in court documents. Mr Chen later asked Xu to withdraw the application.
Mr Dhillon told The Straits Times that Mr Chen has not been charged in court.

 

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Site superintendent told workers to build improvised scaffold that collapsed, injuring 9​

David Sun
Correspondent

March 22, 2023

SINGAPORE - As the site superintendent, he had a responsibility to ensure the safety of himself and that of others.
Instead, Jayaraman Sankaran, 53, instructed workers to erect a scaffold using an improvised method to save time.
The unsafe scaffold later collapsed, injuring a total of nine workers, including one who suffered a fractured wrist and another who suffered four broken teeth.
On Tuesday, Jayaraman, a Malaysian who was employed by Multiheight Scaffolding, was jailed for six months after he was convicted on one count of a negligent act under the Workplace Safety and Health Act.
He had claimed trial, but was eventually found guilty and convicted in November 2022.
On or about Jan 27, 2017, at the Horizon Singapore Terminals worksite at 11 Meranti Crescent, Jayaraman instructed workers from Multiheight to erect the scaffold using an improvised method of joining individually constructed scaffold towers without effective control measures to ensure its stability.
The scaffold, which had been built to a height of 9m, was erected around a structure identified as Tank 208 when it collapsed.

During the trial, Jayaraman’s defence was that he was not supervising the works; the incident was caused by other factors or parties; and that he never instructed the workers to erect the scaffold using the improvised method.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) prosecutors Nur Ishameena and Kimberly Boo rebutted the claims, highlighting multiple inconsistencies between his court testimony and statement he had given to MOM during investigations.
In the statement to MOM, Jayaraman said that when he entered the tank on the morning of Jan 27, the scaffold towers were erected to a height of four lifts.

But in his court testimony, he said that the scaffold had been built to only the height of one lift at the time and they were about to start building a “second one”.
In his statement, Jayaraman had also stated he was responsible for dictating the improvised manner by joining scaffold towers using tubular pipes.
But in court, he denied this, saying he had not given such an instruction.

Multiple witnesses had testified otherwise, saying that Jayaraman had indeed given the instructions, and had also supervised the operation.
Jayaraman later admitted in court that he had not only given the instructions, but had also said how the structure was to be built.
The prosecution said that it was fortuitous no one died from his negligence, and that a deterrent message must be made. It urged the court for a sentence of eight to 10 months’ jail.
Jayaraman has been offered bail for $10,000, and is expected to begin serving his sentence on April 4. The court rejected his request to leave jurisdiction.
For performing a negligent act that endangered the safety of others, he could have been jailed for up to two years and fined up to $30,000.

 

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WhatsApp group administrator jailed for sending out sexually explicit videos of children​

Sri Lankan Hindakumbure Charindu Dilshan Rajapaksha distributed 943 obscene films in a group chat between March 16 and July 26, 2020.

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Mar 31, 2023

SINGAPORE - A man who was an administrator of a WhatsApp group when he sent out 17 clips involving child sexual abuse was jailed for 18 months and two weeks on Friday.
Sri Lankan Hindakumbure Charindu Dilshan Rajapaksha, 30, who was married and has a three-year-old child, had pleaded guilty on March 2 to various offences that included distributing child abuse material.
The prosecution had said then: “The contents of these clips scrape the very pits of depravity. They involve children being raped, possibly being trafficked into sex, and in one clip a pre-pubescent child (was) filmed having sex with a farmyard animal.”
A 25-year-old Sri Lankan man, who was linked to the case, was sentenced to a month’s jail in February 2022.
Hindakumbure’s case was the second one involving child pornography this week.
On Tuesday, Ansari Abdul Amin, 36, was jailed for two years for downloading more than 13,600 files of such material.

In Hindakumbure’s case, the prosecution said he had come to Singapore to study hospitality management. His arrival date was not disclosed.

Between 2019 and early 2020, the Sri Lankan and his six roommates created a group on WhatsApp.
He was one of seven administrators and other Sri Lankans were invited to join the group.
Hindakumbure distributed 943 obscene films in the group chat between March 16 and July 26, 2020.

These included videos of adults engaging in sexual activities with one another.
Seventeen video files showed children engaging in sexual activities.

On Aug 6, 2020, a foot patrol officer with the public transport security command spotted the younger Sri Lankan behaving suspiciously in the concourse area of Lavender MRT station.
The officer and his colleagues conducted a check and saw a group chat on his mobile phone. It had a display picture showing a silhouette of two people having sex.
The officers saw it had more than 6,000 obscene videos and files, including child pornography material. They arrested him and seized his phone.
Hindakumbure was identified as one of the group chat’s administrators.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Chong Kee En and Susanna Yim stated in court documents that by the time the police discovered the group chat, it had 520 participants.
The DPPs added that 256 of them were active participants at the time.

 

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Jail for man who dozed off at wheel of cement mixer while drunk, causing chain collision​

Samuel Devaraj

Apr 6, 2023

SINGAPORE - Sowrirajulu Karunakaran was driving a cement mixer under the influence of alcohol when he fell asleep and caused a chain collision last May.
Several people were injured in the crash, including a man who had pelvic fractures.
Sowrirajulu, a 45-year-old Indian national, was sentenced to 10 months’ jail after he pleaded guilty to a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol, and another for causing grievous hurt while driving without due care or reasonable consideration.
He will also be disqualified from driving for 14 years after his release.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Nicolle Ng said Sowrirajulu, who was working for Infinite Logistics and Trading, started drinking alcohol at 3pm on May 18, 2022.
He was driving the cement mixer along Yishun Avenue 8 at about 7.20pm when he fell asleep. At that time, the weather was clear, the road surface was dry, and the traffic volume was moderate.
When Sowrirajulu woke up, he realised the traffic light ahead was red and jammed on the brakes, but was unable to stop in time.

The cement mixer collided into the rear of a lorry and caused a chain collision involving four vehicles.
The cement mixer was dented and damaged at the front, while the lorry had multiple severe dents, scratches and a shattered windscreen.
Sowrirajulu, who failed the breathalyser test, was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
He was taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital for medical attention and further tests. His blood ethanol concentration was found to be about three times that of the legal limit.
The two passengers of the lorry, both Indian nationals, were taken to the same hospital.
One of the men, 38, had pelvic fractures and middle and lower back pain, and was hospitalised for three days. The other man, 41, had a forehead laceration and neck strain, and was discharged on the same day with 10 days of hospitalisation leave.
As a result of the damage caused to it, the lorry had to be disposed by the company that owned it.
A 44-year-old Singaporean woman, who was the driver of a van that was hit by the lorry, had a minor head injury and was also taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.
The back of her vehicle was dented, and repairs cost $31,290.03.
A third vehicle, a Toyota, had damage to its rear, which cost $17,762 to repair.

 

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70-year-old who went on drug run with PMD convicted of heroin trafficking​

Packets of heroin were recovered from the PMD. PHOTO: COURT DOCUMENTS

Selina Lum
Senior Law Correspondent

Apr 14, 2023

SINGAPORE - A 70-year-old man who went out on his personal mobility device (PMD) with $9,000 one early morning four years ago, and exchanged the cash for a bag of drugs, was convicted of heroin trafficking on Friday.
Packets of heroin were recovered from the PMD belonging to Low Sze Song, a Singaporean, after his arrest.
Sivaprakash Krishnan, a 35-year-old Malaysian who handed him the drugs, was similarly convicted of trafficking 43.2g of pure heroin.
The law provides for the death penalty if the amount of heroin trafficked exceeds 15g.
Both men were found by the High Court to be drug couriers, which means they are eligible to be sentenced to life in prison instead of the death penalty if specific conditions are met.
Drug couriers can get life imprisonment if they are certified by the prosecution to have substantively assisted the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) in disrupting drug trafficking activities, or if they had a mental abnormality that substantially impaired their responsibility for their acts.
At about 6.20am on May 30, 2019, at a bus stop in Sumang Walk in Punggol, Sivaprakash, who was on his motorcycle, handed Low a white plastic bag containing packets of drugs, while Low passed Sivaprakash a stack of cash totalling $9,000.

They were separately arrested by CNB officers soon after.
Both men were jointly tried before Justice Dedar Singh Gill in a trial that began in July 2022.
Prosecutors contended that the two men were in possession of four packets of drugs, which was corroborated by DNA evidence found on the drug bundles and the plastic bag.

Low argued that Sivaprakash handed him only three packets of drugs.
He claimed that the fourth packet, which contained 8.64g of heroin, was not recovered from the PMD.
He relied on a photograph that showed the plastic bag and three packets of drugs. The photo was used by a CNB officer to record a statement from Low, who was not questioned about the fourth bundle.

Prosecutors contended that Low Sze Song and Sivaprakash Krishnan were in possession of four packets of drugs, which was corroborated by DNA evidence found on the drug bundles and a plastic bag containing the drugs. PHOTO: COURT DOCUMENTS
Both men also argued in their defence that they had no knowledge of the nature of the drugs.
In his written judgment on Friday, Justice Gill rejected their contentions.
He said Low’s assertion that he did not check the contents of the plastic bag was at odds with the undisputed evidence that his DNA was found on the interior of the bag.
Low had also argued that the circumstances were not so highly suspicious that he should have inquired into the contents of the bag.
Low said he was instructed to pass $9,000 to a man wearing a red helmet, and did not consider it a large sum of money in the light of his history with crimes including armed robbery, association with secret societies, and credit card fraud.
But the judge said the substantial sum would naturally have raised questions in the mind of any reasonable person of the nature of the contents of the bag.

Sivaprakash argued that he believed that he was delivering “paan parak”, a form of betel nuts, because an acquaintance had asked him to do so, but Justice Gill found this to be implausible.
He said: “Sivaprakash was unable to explain why, if he really believed that the drug bundles were ‘paan parak’, there was a need to pack and deliver them in such a clandestine manner as that which took place, why he was paid RM1,000 (S$300) to make a delivery of ‘paan parak’ and why he received $9,000 in cash from Low in the course of the delivery.”
Justice Gill also concluded that the fourth drug bundle was in fact recovered from the PMD.
He said the omission of the fourth bundle from the photo does, at first blush, gave room to pause.
But the testimonies from the arresting CNB officers relating to the search of the PMD were convincing and corroborated by a field diary entry recorded by one of the officers, he said.
Low’s DNA was also found on the adhesive sides of the taped packaging of the fourth bundle.
“In the light of this, the omission of the fourth drug bundle from the photograph and from Low’s contemporaneous statement was perhaps a lapse, but insufficient to raise a reasonable doubt that the fourth drug bundle had not been seized from the PMD.”

 

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Jail for Australian who conspired with doctor to fake Covid-19 jab records for himself and wife​

David Sun
Crime Correspondent

Apr 27, 2023

SINGAPORE - An Australian man who conspired with a general practitioner to falsify vaccination records was jailed for 16 weeks on Thursday.
David Christopher Newton, 44, pleaded guilty to one charge of cheating, with another taken into consideration for sentencing.
Newton, who had not received the Covid-19 vaccine Sinopharm, paid $6,000 to general practitioner Jipson Quah and the doctor’s then clinic assistant Thomas Chua Cheng Soon to falsify vaccination records for himself and his wife.
In December 2021 and January 2022, Quah then injected Newton and his wife, Ms Wonglangka Apinya, 32, with saline solution before submitting the false records of vaccination to the National Immunisation Registry.
Ms Apinya thought she was being injected with the real vaccine.
Newton did not want to be vaccinated against Covid-19, but was offered a job by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and faced difficulty entering Australia because he was not vaccinated.
Newton joined the Telegram chat of anti-vaccine group Healing the Divide in December 2021 and, through it, got Chua’s mobile phone number and contacted him.

On Dec 26, 2021, he asked Chua if he could be certified as having been vaccinated without getting the real vaccine.
He also asked if his wife could be certified as being medically ineligible for the vaccine, even though she did not fulfil the vaccination exemption criteria.
Chua later told Quah about this and they came up with a plan to have the couple get mock vaccinations at Quah’s clinic for $6,000.


Newton agreed to this and lied to his wife that he had arranged for them to receive the Sinopharm vaccine.
The couple went to Quah’s clinics on Dec 29, 2021, and Jan 15, 2022, to receive their first and second fake doses.
Newton arranged for the dates of the jabs to be 17 days apart, as he had read on the website of Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority that this was a requirement.
At the two clinics, Quah told the couple he would be giving them the Sinopharm vaccine and showed them syringes filled with a liquid before injecting them.
But Newton knew this was a lie and that Quah had actually injected them with saline solution.
Quah submitted the fake vaccination records a few days later to the National Immunisation Registry. They showed both Newton and his wife as being fully vaccinated.
On Thursday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Etsuko Lim told the court that Newton was one of at least 17 patients who were given fake vaccines by Quah.
The prosecution urged the court to sentence Newton to 16 to 18 weeks in jail, as the scheme subverted national health measures.
She added that while Newton was the only patient who has been charged in court, the prosecution has not ruled out taking action against the others.
In his judgment on Thursday, District Judge Soh Tze Bian said that Newton had a negative serology test result in September 2021, but a positive one in March 2022.
This meant that it was likely that Newton contracted Covid-19 at some point in that six-month period, possibly after receiving the fake vaccine jabs.
The judge added that it was entirely fortuitous Newton was arrested on Jan 21, 2022, before his false vaccination status was reflected in the TraceTogether application.
Quah, 35, was also arrested on that day with Chua, 41, and Iris Koh, 47, the founder of anti-vaccine group Healing the Divide.
Quah faces a total of 17 charges, while Chua faces seven charges and Koh, nine charges. They are accused of conspiring to cheat and submit false vaccination records to the Ministry of Health. Their cases are pending.
Quah was suspended in March 2022. He allegedly gave fake Covid-19 jabs to patients, charging them between $1,000 and $1,500. The patients were allegedly injected with saline solution instead of the Covid-19 vaccine.
He then allegedly reported them as being vaccinated to the National Immunisation Registry between December 2021 and January 2022.
Quah also allegedly allowed more than 430 patients to take Covid-19 tests remotely, even though this was against the rules at the time.
The Singapore Medical Council had said he put the public at risk, undermining confidence in the medical profession and Singapore’s Covid-19 testing capabilities.
At Newton’s sentencing on Thursday, District Judge Soh said the offender had participated in the criminal conspiracy while being fully aware of the consequences.
He said: “The present case represents an audacious assault on nationwide public health measures – measures which were enacted to contain a worsening public health emergency and which required the honest cooperation of all Singapore residents.
“The sentence imposed must resonate with the public’s shock at the accused person’s brazen fraud on the Health Promotion Board, which threatened to make a mockery of those public health measures.”
For cheating, Newton could have been jailed for up to three years and fined.

 

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HIV-positive man jailed over false declarations before donating blood​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

May 3, 2023

SINGAPORE – A man lied to the authorities about his sexual activities and donated blood that was later found to be infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
The 27-year-old Malaysian, who cannot be named because of a gag order, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to an offence under the Infectious Diseases Act and was sentenced to three months and two weeks’ jail.
There is no cure for HIV, but it is treatable with medication.
The HealthHub website states that someone infected with it can have a weakened immune system if he does not seek effective treatment early enough.
The disease can then progress to a condition called Aids, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
Mr Andre Moses Tan, a prosecutor for the Ministry of Health (MOH), told the court on Wednesday that the offender had sex with a former girlfriend in February 2020.
Some time in or around August 2020, the offender had sex with a man.

Court documents did not disclose details about the trio’s HIV status at the time or how the offender contracted the virus.
He decided to donate blood in October 2020 and had to complete a donor health assessment questionnaire before doing so.
He was asked if he had sex with more than one partner in the last 12 months, and also if he had ever had sex with another man. The man answered “no” to both queries.


A medical screener from the Health Sciences Authority’s (HSA) blood services group interviewed him after he completed the questionnaire.
The screener went through it and told the man that he could be prosecuted if any of the answers he had given were false or misleading.
She also told him that he could call a 24-hour hotline if he felt that his blood should not be transfused to another person.

Despite being given this information, the offender did not amend his answers, and donated blood. He also did not call the 24-hour hotline after making the donation.
His blood was later tested and found to be infected with HIV.
A doctor from HSA’s blood services group then interviewed the offender on Nov 2, 2020, to ascertain if he had any HIV risk factors.
During the interview, the offender admitted that he had had sex with another man.
An MOH public health officer interviewed the offender three days later, and he told her about his sexual activities.
MOH’s enforcement branch was alerted on Nov 11, 2020, about the man’s case, and he was charged in court in 2021.
Lawyers Ashwin Ganapathy and Victoria Tay of IRB Law represented the man on a pro-bono basis.
Ms Tay told the court on Wednesday that their client, who used to work in the food and beverage industry in Singapore, is now unemployed and had been living off his savings for the last two years.
He had also received a small allowance through the help of social workers at non-governmental organisation Transient Workers Count Too. The lawyer did not disclose the amount.
For committing the offence under the Infectious Diseases Act, the man could have been jailed for up to two years and fined up to $20,000.

 

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Jail for employee who cheated dance school out of NTUC Link loyalty points worth over $3,900​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

May 3, 2023

SINGAPORE – A dance school administrative assistant who cheated her employer out of almost 392,000 NTUC Link loyalty points, valued at nearly $3,920 in total, was sentenced to two weeks’ jail on Wednesday.
Liew Yu Er, whose duties at Dancepointe Academy in Pasir Ris included crediting Linkpoints to customers of the dance school, had logged the points into her own NTUC Plus! card. The multi-function card for National Trades Union Congress members can be used for banking and making payments.
Liew subsequently used the Linkpoints in her card to pay for items such as food at FairPrice outlets.
The 23-year-old Malaysian pleaded guilty to a cheating charge on Wednesday.
The prosecution told the court that social enterprise NTUC Link administers a programme where participants are rewarded with loyalty points known as Linkpoints when they complete transactions with NTUC Link’s business partners.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Benedict Chan said that Dancepointe Academy was one of NTUC Link’s business partners.
On 145 occasions from August to November 2022, Liew credited nearly 392,000 Linkpoints to herself using a Nets, or Network for Electronic Transfers, device.

To accumulate that many Linkpoints, a person would have to complete transactions worth around $292,000 in total, said the DPP.
He told the court: “Initially, Liew only credited Linkpoints that customers did not redeem into her card.
“Liew later started crediting Linkpoints to her card even where there was no qualifying transaction by customers of Dancepointe Academy.”
Liew’s actions were discovered in November 2022.
On Nov 15, an NTUC Link administration manager received an inquiry from FairPrice to verify the number of Linkpoints belonging to a member registered under Liew’s particulars.
The manager found that nearly 392,000 Linkpoints were credited into Liew’s account and, on Nov 23, alerted the police about the abnormal number of Linkpoints in the card.
She also contacted Liew’s employer, who confronted the offender. Liew then came clean about what she had done and was arrested on Nov 30.
Liew, who was not represented by a lawyer, pleaded for leniency on Wednesday.
Without revealing details, she told the court that she was a scam victim and had used the Linkpoints to obtain items for her daily needs.
An offender convicted of cheating can be jailed for up to three years and fined.

 

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Teacher illegally imported more than 175kg of food items including animals’ blood from China​

A total of 175.1kg of food items were found to be illegally imported without a valid licence for meat and processed food. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: PEXELS

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

May 8, 2023

SINGAPORE - A childcare teacher here has been hit with a $12,000 fine for bringing in processed meat products from China in early 2022.
Mei Hua was caught after Singapore Customs detected an illegal importation of more than 175kg of food items such as animals’ blood from China in January 2022.
She did not have a licence from the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) to import the food items, which were also declared as “toys and clothes”.
The agency earlier said that as illegally imported food products are from unknown sources, they can pose a food safety risk.
The 48-year-old Chinese national was fined on Monday after she pleaded guilty to an offence under the Wholesome Meat and Fish Act.
In an earlier statement, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore said that animal blood food products are prohibited in Singapore as blood can easily support the growth of bacteria and harbour diseases.
The agency added that unhygienic harvesting of blood can also result in the introduction of food-borne pathogens into blood food products.

In her mitigation, Mei said that the food items were for her own consumption.
She told District Judge Marvin Bay that she had not returned home to Jilin in north-eastern China for more than 10 years and needed some “hometown flavours” for Chinese New Year.
Stressing that there is a strict ban on animal blood products here, the judge said: “(Mei) who had been in Singapore for 16 years and a pre-school teacher for seven years was certainly in a position to have known better.
“Given that (Mei’s) work as an educator, the risk of unregulated importation of animal products, especially blood products, should be obvious as there would be no checks for pathogens – like bacterial contamination – and other hazards that might render the products to be unwholesome.”
According to an SFA prosecuting officer, investigations revealed that a total of 175.1kg of food items belonging to Mei were found to be illegally imported without a valid licence for meat and processed food.
They were smuggled into Singapore with other items such as clothes, books and housing goods.
The illegal food products included 33.4kg of ducks’ blood, 32.3kg of pigs’ blood, 6.7kg of sheeps’ blood, 5.35kg of chicken feet and sausages weighing 23.7kg in total.
All of the items were seized and disposed.

 

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Housewife gets 16 weeks’ jail after she punched domestic helper and threw vomit at her face​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

May 11, 2023

SINGAPORE - Unhappy with her domestic helper’s work performance, a housewife repeatedly punched the Indian national and threw vomit at the victim’s face.
Monica Sharma, 37, who is also an Indian national, was sentenced to 16 weeks’ jail on Thursday after she pleaded guilty to an assault charge.
Her husband had employed the 25-year-old victim who started working in the family’s condominium apartment near River Valley Road on Jan 20, 2021.
The maid was cleaning some toys in the living room on April 10, 2021 when Sharma raised her voice as she was not pleased with how the younger woman was performing the task.
She then punched the helper’s face three times. Sharma’s husband, who was nearby, tried to stop the assault and apologised to the victim for his wife’s behaviour.
Instead of stopping, Sharma took a toy to hit the victim’s head once.
According to court documents, she also threw vomit at the younger woman, but court documents did not disclose its source.

Deputy Public Prosecutor R. Arvindren said that the maid suffered injuries including a swelling over her left eyebrow and a bruised nose.
The helper snapped pictures of her own injuries and sent them to her agent in India, who then forwarded the photographs to some contacts in Singapore. The police were alerted the next day.
Officers went to the apartment and the maid was later seen at Changi General Hospital. She was discharged soon after.


Humiliated by her ordeal, she stopped working for Sharma’s household on April 11, 2021 and had a new employer about two months later.
She also suffered a loss of income of more than $950 and Sharma compensated her on Sept 26, 2022.
On Thursday, the DPP urged the court to sentence the housewife to at least five months’ jail, stressing that the abuse took place in the privacy of her home, making it difficult to detect.

He added: “The accused not only targeted the victim’s face, which is a vulnerable part of her body, but also used a toy to hit her.
“In addition, the accused threw (vomit) at the face and head region of the victim which made the victim feel humiliated.”
Defence lawyer Amarjit Singh Sidhu pleaded for leniency.
He told the court that Sharma is prone to anxiety attacks and had attended a few sessions at The Centre for Psychology.
The lawyer from Amarjit Sidhu Law added: “Monica is currently undergoing therapy regularly and has expressed that she is committed to receiving therapy for her personal, marital and family well-being.
“This particular incident has scared her, and she realises how her mental health affects not only her, but the rest of her family members as well.”
Sharma’s bail was set at $10,000 on Thursday, and she is expected to surrender herself at the State Courts on May 23 to begin serving her sentence.