Foreign talent's contributions to Singapore

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Jail for man who molested family friend’s 13-year-old daughter​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Sep 02, 2024

SINGAPORE – He was a family friend, and a 13-year-old girl trusted him enough to go on a motorcycle ride with him and later agree to sit on his lap near a playground in Sembawang.
The man then molested the girl before taking her back home later that evening in October 2022.
The 52-year-old Indian national, who cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the girl’s identity, pleaded guilty to a molestation charge and was sentenced to 14 months’ jail on Sept 2.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Suriya Prakash told the court that the man often visited the girl and her mother at their home.
Some time before 7pm on Oct 26, 2022, the mother contacted the man and asked him to bring them dinner.
He turned up at their home that evening and played chess with the victim.
The prosecutor said: “The accused then asked the victim if she wanted to go on a joyride alone with him on his motorcycle. The victim agreed.

“The victim’s mother also consented to the accused bringing the victim on the joyride alone and entrusted the victim in the accused’s custody.”
The man then rode his motorcycle with the girl riding pillion.
They went to a shop at Sembawang Shopping Centre, where he bought her a drawing block holder, a notebook and a sticker pad.
He then asked the girl to accompany him to a nearby beach. She initially declined to do so but gave in when he persuaded her to come along.
They reached a playground near Wak Hassan Drive, and he sat on a bench before asking the girl to sit on his lap. After she complied, the man molested the girl.
Feeling very uncomfortable with his touches, she stood up and asked him to take her home. They arrived back home at around 8.45pm.
Court documents did not disclose what happened next, but the man was later charged in court in 2023.
For molesting a child below 14 years old, an offender can be jailed for up to five years, fined, caned or receive any combination of such punishments.
The man cannot be caned as he is above the age of 50.

 

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Ex-maid barred from working in S’pore for breaching work pass conditions; was acquitted of false declaration charge​

Ms Alka was issued a stern warning in August by the Ministry of Manpower for breaching her work pass conditions. PHOTOS: ALKA, LIANHE ZAOBAO

Joyce Lim
Senior Correspondent

Sep 05, 2024

SINGAPORE – A former domestic helper from India, who was acquitted of a false declaration charge in July, has been barred from working in Singapore.
Ms Alka, 44, who goes by one name, was issued a stern warning in August by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) for breaching her work pass conditions.
The breach involved her failure to “reside at her employer’s residential address, as stated in her work permit”, said an MOM spokesman in response to queries from The Straits Times.
“Alka has been barred from future employment in Singapore,” the spokesman added.
The Indian national was repatriated on Aug 16.
Ms Alka told ST in a phone interview from Delhi that the warning had dashed her hopes of returning to Singapore for work.
“I am devastated,” she said. “My parents have passed away, and I don’t have family in India. My family is in Singapore. I got married in Singapore on Aug 5. I have been staying in Singapore for the past 10 years.”

She was shocked to learn of the ban, particularly as it came after what seemed to be a legal victory for her in July.
“I requested to stay in Singapore to work,” said Ms Alka. “But the MOM officer told me I need to go back to India and apply for a new work pass to return to Singapore for work.”
She first came here to work as a domestic worker in 2014. In October 2017, her then employer told her that her services were no longer required.

She told her boyfriend in Singapore that she wished to remain here, and he subsequently introduced her to Mr Anil Tripathi.
Ms Alka struck an agreement with Mr Anil that she would cook for him three to four times a week, and he would be listed as her employer, allowing her to remain in Singapore with her boyfriend.
On Dec 22, 2017, Ms Alka signed and submitted an application form for a domestic helper to MOM, declaring that Mr Anil was her employer.

On Oct 15, 2018, she was arrested by MOM officers for working as a sales assistant at a clothing store in Serangoon Road.
Ms Alka pleaded guilty to working as a sales assistant without a valid work pass, and was fined $4,500. She did not appeal against the fine.
She was also charged with making a false declaration in her work pass application, declaring that she was employed by Mr Anil as a foreign domestic worker when she “did not have the intention to be employed as such”.
The offence carries a fine of up to $20,000 or a jail sentence of up to two years, or both.
In 2023, Ms Alka was convicted and sentenced to 10 weeks’ jail.
She appealed against her conviction and was acquitted by the High Court on July 25, 2024.
In her appeal, her lawyer, Mr Sarbrinder Singh of Sanders Law, argued that there was no false declaration as Ms Alka had indeed worked for Mr Anil, albeit in an informal capacity.
High Court Justice Aedit Abdullah said the definition of employment was broad enough to cover occasional cooking or other minor work, done for no pay. He also found that the evidence presented during the trial did not support the charge.
In the light of the High Court’s decision to acquit Ms Alka, Mr Singh urged the authorities to review the migrant domestic worker application form so that an applicant has a clear understanding of the seriousness of the declaration and the precise scope of the required employment in Singapore when applying for a job.
Said the MOM spokesman: “(We) constantly review our legislation and processes to remain responsive to the changing landscape. Where necessary, we will make changes after careful deliberation and consultation with stakeholders.

 

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Project manager linked to over $88k in bribes to zoo director gets more than 4 months’ jail​

Chong Yun Chia, a project manager at construction firm KK Iron Engineering at the time of the offences, was also ordered to pay a penalty of $38,174. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Sep 04, 2024

SINGAPORE – A man who worked with three others to give more than $88,000 in bribes to the facilities management director at the Singapore Zoological Gardens was sentenced to four months and 10 weeks’ jail on Sept 4.
Chong Yun Chia, 40, a project manager at construction firm KK Iron Engineering (KKI) at the time of the offences, was also ordered to pay a penalty of $38,174.
The Malaysian will spend an additional 38 days behind bars if he fails to pay this penalty.
He had already pleaded guilty to five graft charges on May 2, and 19 other charges were considered during sentencing.
The Singapore Zoological Gardens, now known as the Singapore Zoo, was a subsidiary of Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), which also managed the Night Safari.
Chong Yun Chia was one of four men involved in a conspiracy to give bribes to Barry Chong Peng Wee, 57, over four occasions in 2016.
This was done to advance KKI’s business interests with WRS, now known as the Mandai Wildlife Group.

Due to the corrupt arrangement, WRS awarded multiple contracts to KKI worth more than $1 million.
It is estimated that WRS suffered a loss of at least $88,350 as a result of marked-up prices submitted under the corrupt arrangement related to Chong Yun Chia’s charges.
In earlier proceedings, the prosecution told the court that Chong Yun Chia had worked with Koh Kian Hee, To Chai Kiat and Toh Yong Soon to give the bribes to Barry Chong, who has since left WRS.

At the time of the offences, Koh, 42, was a director and shareholder at construction firm Geoscapes, while To, 50, was the sole director of KKI.
Toh, 39, was then a project manager at a firm called Shin Yong Construction (SYC).
To was sentenced to nine months’ jail on July 2, while Toh was ordered to spend three years and three months behind bars on May 3. The cases involving Koh and Barry Chong are still pending.

The prosecution said that in 2005, Barry Chong entered into a corrupt arrangement with key personnel of SYC to ensure that WRS-related jobs were awarded to SYC in exchange for monetary commission.
Toh began managing SYC’s operations 10 years later and continued with this arrangement.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Kelvin Chong, Shamini Joseph and Darren Sim stated in court documents: “Toh was to recruit other contractors into the arrangement... Barry would tell Toh a specific price to bid at to ensure that a job was awarded by WRS to SYC or the other contractors.
“Toh and the group of contractors would then collude to put in bids for WRS jobs at the specified prices, where some parties would put in bids higher than the bid price given by Barry.”
The quotations WRS received were presented to Barry Chong, and the managers working under him would generally award the jobs to the lowest quotes received.
The prosecution told the court that Toh later recruited Koh into the scheme and, in turn, Koh roped in To.
To then recruited Chong Yun Chia when the latter began working as a project manager for KKI.
In 2014, Chong Yun Chia and To jointly founded a company called Onesta Projects.
The prosecution told the court that around January 2016, Koh asked To to generate fictitious invoices for him to help mask an audit trail of “commissions” that Geoscapes had been paying Barry Chong in exchange for WRS-related jobs.
Even though To refused to do so, Chong Yun Chia agreed to help Koh and liaised directly with him. He then received more than $92,000 in bribes from Koh, the court heard.
Chong Yun Chia’s bail was set at $50,000 on Sept 4, and he is expected to begin serving his sentence on Oct 2.

 

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5 Gurkha Contingent officers ran illegal money transfer services; 1 case involved nearly $3m​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Sep 06, 2024

SINGAPORE – Five officers from the Gurkha Contingent (GC) operated unlawful cross-border money transfer services, with each man’s case involving between $103,473 and more than $2.86 million.
They were given jail sentences on Sept 5 after they pleaded guilty to charges under the Payment Services Act (PSA).
Sitaram Tamang’s case involved over $2.86 million in total, and he was handed the stiffest sentence of five months’ jail.
The 40-year-old man had pleaded guilty to a charge under the PSA involving nearly $1.6 million. Three other charges linked to the remaining amount were considered during sentencing.
Dik Bahadur Gurung, 32, was sentenced to 14 weeks’ jail after he pleaded guilty to two charges relating to more than $1 million in total.
Ganga Prasad Rai, 43, pleaded guilty to two charges involving more than $600,000 and was sentenced to 10 weeks’ jail.
Ashok Kumar Thapa Magar, 39, and Mingmar Sherpa, 44, each pleaded guilty to one charge under the PSA.

Mingmar’s case involved nearly $472,000, and he was sentenced to seven weeks’ jail, while Ashok, whose case was linked to more than $103,000, was ordered to spend four weeks behind bars.
In a statement to The Straits Times on Sept 6, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said that it started its investigation against the five men when the offences came to light and they were immediately removed from frontline duties.
An SPF spokesperson added that the agency will start internal action against the GC officers after their Sept 5 conviction and sentencing.

The prosecution said that a sixth man, identified as Mr Pratik Tamang, 41, is linked to some of the charges.
He joined the GC in 2004 and returned to Nepal in February 2022 after his retirement. He is still at large.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Brian Tan told the court that some time on or before June 2021, Mr Pratik began offering a money remittance service to the other GC officers within their camp.
According to court documents, he later recruited Ganga and Dik to work with him in offering such services. He also engaged Sitaram to help him collect the money.
Mr Pratik was already in Nepal when Sitaram worked with him between February and July 2022 to provide an unlawful payment service in Singapore.

DPP Tan said: “Under the arrangement, GC officers looking to remit money from Singapore dollars to Nepalese rupees (NPR) from Singapore to Nepal would contact Pratik via his mobile number.
“After informing Pratik of the amount in dollars that they were looking to remit back, Pratik would first transfer the equivalent amount in NPR to the remitters’ beneficiaries in Nepal.”
He would then ask the remitters to contact Sitaram in Singapore to transfer the equivalent value in dollars to Sitaram’s bank account linked to payment platform PayNow.
Nearly $1.6 million involving 111 deposits went through the bank account.
After that, Sitaram would arrange to hand over the remittance monies in dollars to Mr Pratik, either by PayNow transfers to the latter’s bank account or in cash to Mr Pratik’s friends.
Between February and July 2022, Ganga engaged in a conspiracy with Sitaram and Mr Pratik to offer a cross-border money transfer service. Ganga then collected more than $243,000, which he handed over to Sitaram.
Ganga later broke off his arrangement with Sitaram and Mr Pratik and began working on his own. He provided a similar service from August 2022 to March 2023, involving over $383,000.
Both Sitaram and Ganga did not make any profit from the remittances.
Meanwhile, Dik worked together with Sitaram and Mr Pratik to offer such a service between February and July 2022. He collected nearly $550,000, which he handed to Sitaram, the court heard.
He later stopped working with the pair and worked on his own from August 2022 to January 2023, and this offence involved nearly $500,000.
The DPP said that Dik earned an estimated profit of between $1,750 and $2,450.
Separately, the DPP said that Mingmar committed the offences with his Nepalese wife, Ms Pema Sherpa, 43, who is now based in Canada and is still at large.
According to court documents, she started offering a money remittance service to QC officers within their camp in September 2022.

DPP said that as Ms Pema needed a bank account to receive the remittance monies, her husband handed over the details of his bank account to her for this purpose. He also shared his PayNow details with her.
Between September 2022 and March 2023, Mingmar received more than $470,000 in his bank account as remittance through 183 transactions.
In an unrelated case, Ashok, who provided a similar service, received more than $103,000 in his bank account from February to July 2022 as remittance monies through 26 transactions.
The offences involving all five men came to light following a raid of the GC camp near Mount Vernon Road in March 2023.

 

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Jail for motorist who fled to JB after fatal BKE hit-and-run accident​

Pua Yui Loon was jailed for three years and 10 months, and disqualified from driving for 10 years. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG

David Sun
Crime Correspondent

Sep 10, 2024

SINGAPORE – After having some drinks at the bar where he worked, Pua Yui Loon, 28, drove on the BKE at an “extreme speed” of 141kmh in the early hours of Feb 6.
The Malaysian then hit a motorcycle, killing the motorcyclist and injuring the pillion rider.
Instead of stopping, Pua drove across the Causeway back to his condominium in Johor Bahru, and was caught when he tried to enter Singapore on a bus the next day.
On Sept 10, Pua was jailed for three years and 10 months, and disqualified from driving for 10 years after pleading guilty to one charge of dangerous driving causing death.
Another five charges, relating to failing to render assistance, failing to report the accident, failing to stop, moving the car and dangerous driving causing hurt, were taken into consideration for the sentence.
On Feb 6, Pua had beer with customers at the lounge bar in Geylang where he worked as a cashier, before leaving the premises at around 1am.
He drove one of his colleagues to Paya Lebar, before driving towards Woodlands Checkpoint via the BKE.

While on the BKE, he drove on the right-most lane of the three-lane expressway at an average speed of at least 141kmh.
At around 1.20am, Pua tried to overtake a motorcycle in front of him in the same lane, squeezing in from the right.
He hit the motorcycle, causing it to overturn behind his car.

The motorcyclist, Mr Joshua Chiam Chee Wai, 22, and his girlfriend, Ms Siti Noor Diyana Abdul Rahim, 23, who was riding pillion, were flung to the ground.
The court heard that Ms Siti, who was conscious, could only watch as her boyfriend lay dying on the ground. She had called out to him but was unable to move as her legs and hands were injured.
Paramedics who arrived at the scene pronounced Mr Chiam dead at around 1.50am. Ms Siti was taken to hospital.
By that time, Pua had driven across the Causeway and parked his car at his condo in Johor Bahru.
The next day, on Feb 7, he tried to enter Singapore on a bus at Woodlands Checkpoint, where he was detained and later arrested.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Natalie Chu had asked the court for a sentence of between four and five years’ jail, citing a need for deterrence as there had been an increase in fatal accidents from 2022 to 2023.
She said Pua’s dangerous driving was extensive and deliberate, and that he had fled the scene and driven to Johor Bahru.
Pua’s lawyer, Mr Bryan Lim from Hoh Law Corporation, had initially asked the court for the minimum sentence of two years’ jail, saying his client was extremely ashamed and deeply regrets his actions.
But District Judge Tan Jen Tse said that a minimum sentence would be “totally wrong”.
He said: “It was not just speeding, it was extremely high speed. How can it be a minimum sentence case? First, he tried to squeeze (past the motorcycle). Second, he was drinking. We just don’t know how much because he had fled the scene.”
Mr Lim then asked the court for a sentence of slightly over two years’ jail.
During sentencing, Judge Tan said the high speed, trying to squeeze past the victim and the consumption of alcohol were all aggravating factors.
For causing death by driving dangerously, Pua could have been jailed for up to eight years.

 

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Jail for ‘glorified secretary’ who facilitated crypto Ponzi scheme that scammed victims of $1.1m​

Chinese national Chen Wei, 43, pleaded guilty to six cheating charges and one charge of not having a valid work pass. PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG

David Sun
Crime Correspondent

Sep 12, 2024

SINGAPORE – In name, he was the registered director of the company, but in practice, he was a “glorified secretary” and the personal assistant to the chairman.
Nonetheless, Chen Wei, 43, was a key cog in an elaborate cryptocurrency investment scam that cheated victims of $1.1 million.
On Sept 11, the Chinese national was sentenced to four years’ jail and fined $6,000 after pleading guilty to six charges of cheating and one charge of not having a valid work pass.
Another eight similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.
He will have to serve another 20 days in jail if the fine is not paid.
Chen was the director of A&A Blockchain Technology Innovation, and reported to Dutch national Yang Bin, 61, the company’s chairman and mastermind of the scheme.
The company offered an investment scheme to retail investors, claiming to have 300,000 physical mining machines that could mine cryptocurrency to generate revenue.

But the company did not have such machines and it was all a Ponzi scheme, along with a fake app where investors could monitor their purported 0.5 per cent daily returns.
The app was actually a centralised software program where system managers based in China could input random numbers to falsely reflect investor returns.
A&A was incorporated in April 2021, after which it began offering the A&A Chain Mining Scheme to investors in Singapore.
Between May 2021 and February 2022, the company attracted investments from more than 700 investors in Singapore, amounting to about $6.7 million.
Because it was a Ponzi scheme, some of the investors were paid returns using monies from newer investors.
When the scheme was uncovered, the losses suffered by investors amounted to about $1.1 million.
Yang was jailed for six years and fined $16,000 on Aug 26 after pleading guilty to six cheating charges and two charges relating to the employment of foreigners. Eleven other charges were considered during sentencing.
On Sept 11, Chen’s lawyer Gary Low told the court his client’s role was “highly administrative” and that he was Yang’s “glorified secretary” who did only what he was instructed to do.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Wong Shiau Yin said Chen was certainly not the mastermind, but this did not detract from the role and function he played in the whole scheme, having been the one to collect the cash from investors.
For each count of cheating, he could have been jailed for up to 10 years, on top of a fine.

 

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Cleaner who broke into house and tried to rape woman gets jail, caning​

Selina Lum
Senior Law Correspondent

Sep 16, 2024

SINGAPORE – A 21-year-old cleaner broke into a two-storey house in the middle of the night in 2022 while he was drunk, undeterred even after he cut his hands on barbed wire while climbing over a fence.
After getting into the house through an unlocked window, Andrew Kumaravel searched for money. He then entered a bedroom and tried to rape the 58-year-old woman sleeping there.
She woke up and put up a struggle, and he fled the house, leaving behind his shorts and underwear.
The Malaysian man was arrested on the same day after he was traced through fingerprint analysis.
On Sept 16, Kumaravel, now 23, was sentenced to 9½ years’ jail and six strokes of the cane after he pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted rape, a charge of housebreaking, and a charge of voyeurism for an unrelated incident.
Four other charges, including a charge of voluntarily causing hurt to the woman, were taken into consideration during sentencing.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Claire Poh told the court that on the night of April 14, 2022, Kumaravel was drinking beer and watching pornographic videos on his mobile phone in a storeroom at his workplace, which was in an industrial building separated by fencing from the house next to it.

When he stepped out for a smoke, he spotted the victim changing clothes in her bedroom.
Shortly before 2am the next morning, he decided to break into the house. He first climbed over a barbed wire fence, cutting his hands in the process, then climbed over the metal fence of the house.
As the door to the house was locked, he tested multiple windows and eventually found one that was unlocked.

Once inside, he searched for money on the first floor, then decided to go up to the second floor, knowing that the victim was in one of the rooms.
After opening the door to her room, he took off his shorts and underwear, and placed them by the doorway with his other personal belongings.
He then climbed onto the woman’s bed and restrained her. The woman, who had woken up by this point, shouted and struggled with him on her bed.
Kumaravel choked the victim and tried to pull down her shorts, but she resisted and grabbed his neck.
He bit her finger, and in defence, she bit him on the arm. At some point during the scuffle, he intentionally hit her in the eye.
The woman’s mother, awoken by the commotion, then shouted, asking why there was so much noise.

Fearing he would be caught, Kumaravel stopped struggling with the victim and ran out of her room.
He left the house the same way he had entered, returned to his workplace at about 2.30am, and threw his T-shirt into a dustbin there.
The victim called the police at about 2.40am on April 15. Kumaravel was arrested at about 11.40am that day.
The attempted rape was committed while he was on bail for voyeurism.
Kumaravel used to live with several other people in a unit with just one toilet for them to use.
One of his housemates, a 44-year-old Malaysian woman, spotted his mobile phone placed on a pipe while she was showering on March 5, 2022. She made a police report two days later.
Kumaravel was arrested on March 8, 2022, and released on personal bond. His phone was seized by the police.
Aside from the recorded video of the complainant, the phone contained another video of two other housemates in the shower on March 6, 2022.

 

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4 years' jail, caning for man, 31, who molested woman, pinned her on his bed after shared meal out​

Pixabay

• Bi Ran got drunk while at dinner with a woman he met on a social networking application
• As a private-hire driver refused to take Bi home, the woman decided to let him share her ride and drop him home
• At his home, the woman helped Bi to his room, where Bi held her down on his bed, and touched her both over and underneath her clothing
• On Wednesday (Sept 11), Bi pleaded guilty to one charge of using criminal force with the intent of outraging her modesty
• He was sentenced to four years’ jail and four strokes of the cane

By

Deborah Lau​

Published September 11, 2024

SINGAPORE — After getting drunk while at dinner with a woman he met on a social networking application, Bi Ran held the woman down on his bed after she had helped to take him home.
The 31-year-old man from China touched the woman, 30, against her will both over and underneath her clothing despite her repeated protests and resistance.
On Wednesday (Sept 11), Bi pleaded guilty to one charge of using criminal force with the intent of outraging a person’s modesty.
He was sentenced to four years’ jail and four strokes of the cane.
Another two charges were taken into consideration in sentencing.

A court-imposed gag order bans the identification of the victim.

WHAT HAPPENED​

At the time of the offence, Bi was renting a room in a unit which he shared with five other tenants.
The woman worked in Singapore as a preschool teacher.
Sometime in January 2022, Bi and the woman met on Soul, a social networking application, and began chatting. They continued their conversation on messaging platform WeChat.
During their chats, Bi asked the woman to consider dating him. He also asked her out to dinner on a few occasions.
However, she rejected Bi’s advances, and also declined the dinner invitations.

On the evening of Feb 5, 2022, Bi contacted the woman again on WeChat and invited her to dinner at a restaurant in Chinatown.
She initially declined as she needed to run some errands after work. Bi, however, insisted that he was willing to wait for her.
As the woman had not had her dinner yet, she agreed to meet him then.
The pair met in Chinatown for dinner at about 7.45pm that night.
During the dinner, the woman had two 500ml bottles of beer, while Bi drank around five to six bottles of beer.
At around 11pm, both Bi and the woman booked separate private hire cars to head home.

Noting that Bi was intoxicated, his private-hire car driver refused to pick him up.
The woman decided to help Bi to get home, by booking a multi-destination ride — first, to Bi’s home, and then to her home.
When their private-hire car arrived at Bi’s block, the woman helped him out of the car and he sat down on the walkway.
As she was about to leave in the private-hire car, however, a female passerby chided her for leaving Bi by the road without helping him home.
Feeling bad, the woman terminated the rest of her private-hire car trip, and helped Bi back to his home.
Bi handed her keys to his housing unit and room, and the woman helped him to open both the main and room doors. The pair entered Bi’s room sometime around 11.30pm.
Bi laid on his bed and the woman turned to leave the room. As she did so, Bi hooked an arm around the woman’s neck from behind and pulled her onto his bed.
He told her that he wanted to hug her for a while. Thinking it was a friendly gesture, the woman relented.
After a short hug, she tried to stand up to leave.
However, Bi then held her down and pushed her towards the centre of his bed, while kissing her on her face. He also started touching her body.
The woman struggled and tried to push Bi away, while repeatedly telling him that she did not want to have sex with him.
Bi, however, continued to pin her down on his bed and molested her.
He later straddled her and used a sex toy he kept in his side table cabinet to touch her body parts.
The woman continued to struggle and eventually fell off the bed. She shouted for help and told Bi that she would shout even louder.
When he told her not to do so, she quickly gathered her belongings and hurriedly left the unit at around midnight on Feb 6, 2022.
At about 3.30pm that day, the woman made a police report, stating that she was sexually assaulted at Bi’s home the night before.
Bi contacted the woman later that same night, asking if she knew where his spectacles were. He also texted her photographs of his vomit and asked her to take care of him.
The woman ignored his request and blocked him on WeChat.
As Bi continued to repeatedly send her “friend requests” on WeChat, the woman unblocked him the next morning to scold him for what he did the night before. She then ceased further contact with Bi.
The woman underwent a medical examination at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital at about 9.15pm on Feb 6, 2022. She was diagnosed with slight abrasions on her external elbows and her right lower face, which she had sustained as a result of her struggle with Bi.
For wrongfully restraining a person in order to commit an offence, Bi could have been jailed for between two and 10 years, and caned.

 

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Company director to be jailed 42 weeks for false declarations on unexported liquor​

Officers noticed pallets of liquor at the loading bay of the self-storage facility in Old Toh Tuck Road. PHOTOS: SINGAPORE CUSTOMS

Carmen Sin

Sep 19, 2024

SINGAPORE - A man will be jailed for 42 weeks over false declarations on almost 20,000 bottles of liquor that were supposed to be exported, but were found in a storage facility with taxes unpaid.
Alfred James Martin Galistan, 59, was found guilty by the State Courts of instructing a logistics service provider to declare the export of liquor from a licensed warehouse as sea stores – goods meant for use by seamen and passengers on ships outside Singapore waters.
Sea stores are considered exports exempt from goods and services tax (GST) and duty.
However, instead of being delivered to the ships as declared, the liquor was diverted inland without payment of duties and GST owed, Singapore Customs said on Sept 19.
Galistan was fined $567,741.55 in sentencing. He will serve the in-default jail time of 42 weeks in lieu of paying the fine.
In total, $508,610.53 in duties and $59,131.05 in GST went unpaid for the 19,764 bottles of liquor involved.
In an operation on April 9, 2020, Customs officers noticed pallets of liquor at the loading bay of a self-storage facility in Old Toh Tuck Road.

After further checks, they uncovered more liquor in two units at the self-storage facility.
The stock was later established as contraband and found to have been declared as sea stores in export permits that listed Altimate Group as the exporter. Galistan is the company’s director.
Investigations revealed that Galistan had been engaged by an unknown pair to procure liquor from a designated supplier for export.

His company Altimate was to be named as the exporter in the export permits, with the liquor to be sold to a buyer unknown to him.
In return, the unidentified pair allowed Galistan to mark up each carton of liquor by $3 for profit.
Despite never having met the two individuals and his company not being in the business of exporting liquor, Galistan agreed to the proposed arrangement, said Singapore Customs.
He approached a logistics business for the storage of the liquor and declaration of export permits, but did not ensure that the alcohol was exported.

Liquor found in two units of the self-storage facility. PHOTOS: SINGAPORE CUSTOMS
Between January and April 2020, 35 export permits were taken up by Altimate, and it was named the exporter for liquor as sea stores.
Galistan did not conduct any due diligence checks on the two people, nor did he exercise reasonable care in his responsibilities as an exporter, Singapore Customs said.
Stern action will be taken against errant companies named as importers or exporters in permit declarations involving dubious transactions, the authority added.
Those found guilty of making an untrue, incorrect or incomplete declaration, certificate or documentation face a fine of up to $10,000 or equal to the amount of duty or tax owed, whichever is greater, or up to 12 months’ jail, or both.