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Vietnamese woman, Singaporean man jailed for sham marriage
POSTED: 23 May 2013 9:17 PM
Theong Peng Nyuk (L) and Tran Kim Phuong (Photo: Immigration & Checkpoints Authority)
SINGAPORE: A Vietnamese woman and a Singaporean man have become the first couple to be prosecuted under a new law aimed at deterring marriages of convenience.
31-year-old Vietnamese, Tran Thi Kim Phuong, met a Singaporean man in 2009 while on holiday in Singapore and they were said to have fallen in love.
But the man was already married.
Between 2009 and 2011, Tran travelled to Singapore to be with him.
Desperate to stay in Singapore to be with the married Singaporean, Tran agreed to enter into a marriage of convenience with another man - 47-year-old Singaporean Theong Peng Nyuk.
Theong was promised a sum of S$5,000 and S$300 for every successful visit pass extension he helped to sponsor.
The couple subsequently "registered" their marriage on 31 January 2013.
After the solemnisation, they went their separate ways.
The couple would only meet up at the ICA Building when Tran needed to extend her Visit Pass.
Unknown to them, Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers had been keeping a close watch on them.
About two months later, Tran and Theong were arrested by ICA officers.
Cases of marriage of convenience have so far been charged under Section 57(1)(k) of the Immigration Act (IA) where the individuals are charged with making false statements in obtaining immigration facilities.
The penalties for the offence are a fine not exceeding S$4,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or both.
To send a strong deterrent message to individuals who are thinking of entering into a marriage of convenience for the purpose of obtaining an immigration facility, the IA was amended and a new Section 57C introduced.
This allows ICA to prosecute errant couples, middlemen or marriage agencies involved in marriages which are entered into for the purpose of illegally obtaining an immigration advantage, and applies to marriages registered on or after 19 December 2012.
This will include the grant of visas, visit passes, long-term passes and permanent residence.
The penalties for the offence are a fine of up to S$10,000 or jail for up to 10 years, or both.
Tran and Theong were the first couple to be prosecuted under the new Section 57C.
Both Tran and Theong were charged with two counts of making false statements to obtain a Visit Pass, an offence under Section 57(1)(k) of the IA, and one count of entering into a marriage of convenience, an offence under Section 57C(1) of the IA.
Tran was also charged with making false declaration in her Disembarkation and Embarkation card, an offence under Section 57(1)(k) of the IA.
Both Tran and Theong were convicted on 23 May and each sentenced to six months' jail.
Two foreigners arrested for suspected illegal employment
POSTED: 24 May 2013 2:15 PM
SINGAPORE: Officers from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) raided a number of shops in Little India on May 22 and arrested two foreigners on suspicion of illegal employment.
Code-named "Ops Night Strike", the blitz took place at about 6.30pm on Wednesday.
In a statement, MOM said its officers conducted enforcement checks on 12 shops along Kinta Road, Race Course Road and Race Course Lane in the exercise.
They checked a total of 46 persons, comprising 14 locals and 32 foreigners.
They found that two of the foreigners did not have valid work passes.
The two were arrested.
Three other foreigners were also brought in to assist with investigations on suspected false salary declarations.
In the first four months of 2013, a total of 381 foreigners were caught committing illegal employment offences during MOM's operations.
The maximum penalty for illegally employing foreign employees without valid work passes is S$30,000 fine or 12 months' imprisonment, or both.
The maximum penalty for making false declarations is S$20,000 fine or 24 months’ imprisonment, or both.
Pradeep Koneru oversees the India operations of the Trimex Group as Managing Director of Trimex Sands Pvt Ltd. He has led the development of Trimex group’s iron ore, barite and bauxite business in South Asia, and established the heavy mineral sands division. Through Pradeep’s strategy of growth through diversification and forward-and-backward integration. Trimex’s India business has consistently grown in scale and profitability. In recognition of his outstanding leadership and initiative in developing an innovative new business model in sands mineral mining, Pradeep was awarded the 2011 Most Promising Entrepreneurship Award from Enterprise Asia.
Koneru Rajendra Prasad, the UAE-based founder-chairman and mentor of the $100 million Trimex Group, is accused, along with Emaar Properties, Dubai, and other linked companies, of causing the Andhra Pradesh government a loss of Rs.4,310 crore. Arrested by the CBI on November 3 in Hyderabad, Prasad is alleged to have spirited away huge sums of money from India to bank accounts abroad, in the process dealing a financial blow to Emaar Hills Township Private Limited (EHTPL)-a joint venture of Emaar Properties, Dubai, a public joint stock company, and the state-owned Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC).
Hyderabad, April 27 (INN): Koneru Madhu, son of Koneru Prasad, who is 13th accused in Emaar - APIIC scam, was surrendered before the CBI special court in Nampally on Friday.
The CBI in its charge sheet alleged that Rs1.05 crores has been transferred from Emaar funds to Koneru Madhu accounts.
Former cricket coach gets jail for assisting in housebreaking plan By Claire Huang POSTED: 30 May 2013 2:44 PM
SINGAPORE: A former cricket coach was sentenced to 15 months' jail on Thursday for assisting in a plan to steal from his student's house.
Jeraj Puvaneshen, 26, admitted to helping two fellow coaches with housebreaking in May 2012 and a count of disposing stolen items worth more than S$10,000 in December 2009.
Two other charges of disposing stolen properties worth more than S$5,000 in May 2012 were taken into consideration for sentencing purposes.
At the time of the offences, Puvaneshen was teaching cricket at St Andrew's Secondary and St Andrew's Junior College. His assistant coaches, Rajeswari Pasupathy and Vigineswari Pasupathy, found out that one of the student's parents were away and that the 12-year-old was staying at home alone.
Thus, the two sisters got Puvaneshen to bring the cricket team boys, including the victim, for a run outside the school at about 2pm. The two sisters went on to steal more than S$20,000 worth of gold jewellery and other items from the boy's house, using keys stolen from his bag.
In mitigation, the defence said Puvaneshen makes no excuses for his actions and regrets what he did. It was said that the accused was blindsided by the temptation and although he did distract the victim, he was not the initiator of this plot.
However, the prosecution pointed out that Puvaneshen was a teacher and he abused the trust placed in him.
District Judge Low Wee Ping agreed with the prosecution's call for a deterrent sentence of 15 months' jail. He noted in his judgement that the accused not only disposed off some of the items stolen from the student, but also did the same for another batch of stolen gold jewellery in 2009.
Calling these "outrageous facts", the judge said Puvaneshen then went on to share the proceeds from the disposals.
Puvaneshen is the first of the three accused to be dealt with. The other two are expected in court on July 12.
2 Myanmar nationals and Singaporean jailed for sham marriage offence
Published on May 31, 2013
By Elena Chong
Two Myanmar nationals and a Singaporean who were involved in a sham marriage offence were jailed on Friday.
The agent, Kyaw Kyaw Oo, 35, was given nine months' jail for arranging a marriage of convenience between Safari Minhad, 52, and Aye Aye Nyien, 31, between mid-August last year and Jan 4 this year. The marriage between Safari and Aye Aye took place at Jurong West Community Club on Jan 4. Both were each sentenced to six months' jail on Friday.
The court heard that Aye Aye, a domestic worker, had approached Kyaw Kyaw, who was her neighbour in Myanmar, and told him she no longer wanted to work as a maid in Singapore.
She asked whether he knew of any eligible male Singapore citizen who would be willing to enter into a marriage of convenience with her so that she could prolong her stay to look for another job. She indicated she was willing to pay $3,000 for such a marriage.
Caught on CCTV: Woman effortlessly shoplifts spa products at Mandarin Gallery
A woman was caught on CCTV shoplifting at least three products at a store in Mandarin Gallery.
The video was sent to Stomp by a contributor who warns retailers to be alert of the shoplifters' tactics.
The accomplice will distract the staff of the shop while the woman grabs items off the shelf.
"I'm sharing this video on behalf of a friend. This incident took place at her store, Mt. Sapola at Mandarin Gallery recently," said the Stomp contributor.
"When a staff member was alone in the store, a woman wearing a yellow top and shades was seen shoplifting.
"This person appears to be a Chinese national who appears to be well-dressed. She has yet to be apprehended.
"Please share this to all retailers, so as to prevent it from happening again.
"I feel that their modus operandi is to attract the single staff member with something, while the accomplice carries out the shoplifting."
A customs raid on various locations in Geylang yesterday resulted in eight Vietnamese men being arrested for selling contraband cigarettes.
A total of 63 cartons and 350 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes were seized.
One man put up such a fierce struggle that it took seven officers to subdue him .
The total street value of the cigarettes seized is about $5,300. The total duty and Goods and Services Tax evaded is about $7,500 and $700, respectively.
Read the full story in The New Paper on Friday (June 7)
Top student at Lasalle jailed for possession of cannabis at his former school
Published on Jun 07, 2013
A man who was caught for having drugs at Lasalle College of the Arts was jailed for five months on Friday, June 7, 2013. Anand Gokul Anand, 23, who topped his class when he graduated, pleaded guilty to having two packets of 0.81g of cannabis at the Student Service Centre of Lasalle at McNally Street on Oct 11 last year. -- ST POSED PHOTO: WANG HUI FEN
By Elena Chong
A man who was caught for having drugs at Lasalle College of the Arts was jailed for five months on Friday. Anand Gokul Anand, 23, who topped his class when he graduated, pleaded guilty to having two packets of 0.81g of cannabis at the Student Service Centre of Lasalle at McNally Street on Oct 11 last year.
A district court heard that the Indian national was arrested at the college on suspicion of having taken controlled drugs that day. A search was conducted and two packets of drugs were recovered from a black box in his bag.
His lawyer Irving Choh had asked for a fine, saying he was a young and bright individual with exceptional talent in the arts. He said the pressures of academia and the fact that he was a foreign student contributed to his stress.
But Assistant Public Prosecutor Mika Talreja objected to the fine. She highlighted that Gokul was a student who brought drugs to school. He and his friends actively sought the trafficker to buy drugs and did so on numerous occasions, she added. Gokul could have been jailed for up to 10 years and/or fined up to $20,000.
Man jailed for damaging windscreen of car in a road rage incident
Published on Jun 07, 2013
A man who damaged the windscreen of a motorist's car in a road rage incident was sentenced to one week's jail on Friday. -- ST FILE PHOTO: WANG HUI FEN
By Elena Chong
A man who damaged the windscreen of a motorist's car in a road rage incident was sentenced to one week's jail on Friday. Arivalakan Narayanan Kanapathy, 55, admitted to mischief by hitting the front windscreen of civil servant Mervyn Lau Jun Ming's car at the open space carpark of Block 117 Bishan Street 12 at about midnight on May 1, 2011. The damage cost $1,853.
A magistrate's court heard that Mr Lau, whose girlfriend was seated in the front passenger seat, was driving along Bishan Street at about 11.45pm on April 30 that year when he noticed a van tailgating his car. The van's driver flashed his high beam behind him.
He recalled cutting into the driver's lane but he claimed to have signalled his intention before doing so. Arivalakan had alleged that the driver had cut into his lan abruptly without signalling.
Arivalakan subsequently followed the car into the Bishan carpark where he parked his van in front of the vehicle. He alighted and walked towards the victim's car before using the back of his hand to rap the front windscreen, causing a crack mark. When he realised that the crack mark was caused by his gemstone ring, he apologised to the victim and offered to make restitution.
Twin-brother pimps from India jailed for 3 1/2 months
Published on Jun 12, 2013
Raman (left) and Lakashmanan Selvaraj were managing six prostitutes for a vice syndicate before they were arrested in December last year. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
By Khushwant Singh
TWIN brothers who came from India to work as pimps for a vice syndicate in Geylang looked on in shock as they were each jailed for 3 1/2 months yesterday.
Raman and Lakashmanan Selvaraj, 26, had been hoping for a fine after they pleaded guilty on June 3 to managing a brothel and helping their accomplices live on the earnings of prostitution.
Lakashmanan arrived here last October and was met by Balamurugan Selvam Paneer, 32, who ran a vice business here which exploited women from India.
Lakashmanan was soon buying meals for the prostitutes and collecting their earnings. These were handed to Balamurugan, who would deduct expenses, and remit the rest to the syndicate boss in India.
Afghan national jailed a year for using false Iranian passport
Published on Jun 25, 2013
By Khushwant Singh
An Afghan national, who used a false Iranian passport to fly to Indonesia from Singapore, was jailed for a year on Tuesday.
Mohammad Arif Ghulam Haidar, 35, pleaded guilty to deceiving a member of Garuda Indonesia Airlines ground staff with the fake passport bearing his name and picture. He committed the offence at 11.50am on May 12 at Changi Airport.
A district court heard Mohammad Arif, a shop assistant in Kabul, arrived here on May 11 with two companions. They flew in from Afghanistan via Dubai and checked into the Transit Hotel at the airport.
The next day, one of his companions left to meet an unknown person and returned with the false Iranian passport. Mohammad Arif used it to board a Garuda flight departing for Jakarta at 12.30pm. The fake passport was discovered there and he was sent back here.
Man swiped $10K from cleaner's account within four days
Published on Jul 01, 2013
A former construction worker who withdrew a total of $10,000 from a woman cleaner's bank account was jailed for eight weeks on Monday. -- ST FILE PHOTO: WANG HUI FEN
By Elena Chong
A former construction worker who withdrew a total of $10,000 from a woman cleaner's bank account was jailed for eight weeks on Monday. Chinese national Yuan Ji Qun, 44, pleaded guilty to three charges of theft and one count of unauthorised access to computer data.
A court heard that within four days in March, he stole a total of $10,000 from his friend, Ms Jiang Dongyu, 36, who was earning about $1,000 as a cleaner. On March 15 while helping her to deposit $2,000 at an ATM, Yuan deliberately dropped her ATM card while taking it out from the machine.
He swapped her ATM card with a discarded one that he had picked up a few days earlier and passed the discarded ATM to her. Subsequently, he went to an ATM near Sims Avenue, keyed in Ms Jiang's PIN number and withdrew $2,000 from her bank account. He knew her PIN as he had peeped and memorized it when helping her to deposit money on numerous occasions.
He then went to a DBS ATM at Park Road where he transferred $5,000 from Ms Jiang's account to his bank account in China. He also withdrew $1,000 each on March 16 and 18. He left Singapore after that and a police gazette was issued for his arrest. When he returned on June 13, he was arrested at Changi Airport. He made restitution of $4,010 to Ms Jiang, who has forgiven him and returned to China. He claimed that he had returned the balance to her in China.
Re: He was killed for S$6, ez-link card and mobile phone
Vietnamese Woman Resists Arrest In Geylang and Even Bites Cop 4 Times
Post date: 16 Jul 2013 - 5:21am
A woman tried to resist police arrest in a Geylang raid and even bit a police officer four times.
According to Shin Min Daily News, the police conducted the raid at about 10am yesterday (Jul 15) to at flush out vice-related activities at the shophouses along Lorong 24 Geylang.
Shin Min was alerted to the raid by a reader who saw police officers in plainclothes arresting the woman. There were around 40 to 50 onlookers at the scene.
Lee, a 50-year-old taxi driver, said he saw plainclothes police officers conducting the raid and immediately took pictures of the woman who was engaged in a tussle with the police officers with his phone.
The woman who assaulted the police officer tried to escape in a car, and two police officers chased her for 50 metres.
Two Malaysians jailed for using counterfeit cards to buy luxury goods
SINGAPORE: Two Malaysians were sentenced to 54 months' jail each for attempting to use counterfeit credit cards to buy luxury goods at Marina Bay Sands earlier this year.
According to court documents, the two men - Soh Kien Wen, 32, and Goh Boon Ong, 29, were part of a counterfeit credit card syndicate based in Malaysia.
Both men had been promised a 10 per cent commission on the total price of items they successfully managed to purchase using the counterfeit credit cards issued to them.
On March 27, both men met a person known as "Derrick" in a coffeeshop in Kuala Lumpur who gave them 29 counterfeit credit cards.
On March 31, they arrived in Singapore and were told to head to Marina Bay Sands where they were given specific instructions on where and what to purchase using the cards.
Among the items they tried to buy were two Omega watches valued at more than S$10,000 each, two Franck Muller watches worth a total of S$71,600 as well as two handbags and a wallet worth some S$9,000 from Bottega Veneta.
However, the transactions were declined when they tried to pay using the counterfeit credit cards at the various boutiques.
Acting on information they had received, police arrested the men while they were on their shopping spree and found the counterfeit cards in their possession.
In mitigation, Goh had said he was remorseful, while Soh said he had wanted to relieve the financial burden on his family and have a more stable life.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Hon Yi had noted that the aggravating factors in this case were that theirs was a syndicated offence, that both were in it for the commission, and that they had tried to buy goods that were extremely expensive.
25 foreigners jailed for fraudently obtaining work passes
SINGAPORE: 25 foreigners have been prosecuted for submitting forged academic certificates to the Controller of Work Passes in order to obtain work passes.
The Manpower Ministry (MOM) said this is the largest number of individuals brought to court so far this year for this offence.
21 are from Myanmar, three from India and one from the Philippines. The 20 males and five females are aged between 19 and 48 years old. All 25 had given false information to the Controller of Work Passes between May and August 2012 in their applications for work passes.
24 had obtained forged academic certificates from their home countries and used them to apply for work passes. The 25th person knew that a forged academic certificate was submitted on her behalf by an employment agent and intentionally failed to notify MOM.
All the accused did not possess any university degree qualifications.
The forged academic certificates were knowingly used to mislead MOM into issuing work passes to them.
The 25 accused were issued with work passes to perform work in operations, sales and retail. Based on the information declared, the 25 accused had been working less than a year here before they were arrested and investigated in May.
All 25 accused pleaded guilty to the charges on Tuesday.
Of the 25, 20 were each sentenced to four weeks' jail. The remaining five accused were fined S$5,000.
MOM said these five were unable to pay up their fines so they would be serving the default sentence of 20 days' jail. - CNA/ac
Prosecution pushes for stiffer sentence for in-flight thief
SINGAPORE: Prosecution has pushed for 12 months' jail for a man convicted of theft on board an aircraft.
This is a much stiffer sentence than its initial submission of 12 weeks' imprisonment.
32-year-old Yue Liangfu might be the first to receive the harsher punishment.
The Chinese national was found guilty of stealing a brown trolley bag belonging to 69-year-old Cambodian Kuy Touch during a SilkAir flight from Singapore to Phnom Penh on 8 June 2013.
In her submissions, prosecutor Krystle Chiang explained the move to ask for a higher sentence.
She said there has been "a significant upward trend" in such theft cases over the past two years.
In 2011, only one individual was arrested for theft on board an aircraft.
In the same year, there was only one such reported case.
Last year, the total number of cases reported shot up to 43 and 36 individuals were arrested.
This year, there have been 35 reported cases so far and 26 individuals have been arrested.
Besides the rise in the number of cases, the prosecution also noted that there are one or more organised crime syndicates targeting Singapore-controlled aircrafts.
Senior District Judge See Kee Oon noted the rising trend and accepted the prosecution's new submissions.
He said from his own experience, the courts have not given sentences exceeding three months for such offences.
But the judge added that he is minded to review the sentencing benchmark as such cases are on the rise.
Yue is expected to be sentenced on 23 July.
The highest penalty is a jail term of three years and a fine. - CNA/xq
Maid jailed for hitting 77-year-old dementia patient
July 20, 2013 - 12:36am
By: Andre Joseph Theng
TNP PHOTO ILLUSTRATION
She dragged her employer’s 77-year-old mother around the house by her shirt and then pushed her head against a kitchen wall with her right hand.
The maid, Naw Toe Toe Mar, 26, also pulled the dementia patient’s hair with both hands and hit her head multiple times.
For abusing the woman, the Myanmar national was sentenced to four weeks’ jail yesterday.
The abuse on May 16 was captured by a security camera which the employer, Ms Edwina Chan Ruth, 45, had installed last year after she noticed several bruises on her mother, who lives with her in a Teck Whye HDB flat.
Read the full report in The New Paper on Saturday (July 20).
