Law clerk jailed 7 years

[Shin Orochi]

Singapore
Feb 11, 2010

Law clerk jailed 7 years

<!-- by line --> By Khushwant Singh
<!-- end by line -->
<!-- end left side bar --> <!-- story content : start --> A LAW clerk forged payment vouchers to misappropriate $1.55 million to feed her gambling habit. For this and counterfeiting stamp duty certificates, Irene Koh Lay Hong was jailed for seven years and two months on Thursday. A district court heard that the conveyancing clerk had siphoned more than $1.3 million from the Sterling Law Corporation to pay off casino ship junket operators between June 2007 and December 2008. She then resigned when directors of the firm became suspicious. Police were called in and investigations revealed that the 44-year-old had cheated other law firms of some $250,000 earlier. The total number of offences added up to 123. Koh has returned $155,300. She also committed a further 14 counterfeiting charges so as to escape paying $234,000 in stamp duties.

 

[Tadakatsu Honda]

Law clerk gets 7 years

Singapore
Feb 12, 2010

Law clerk gets 7 years

<!-- by line --> By Khushwant Singh
<!-- end by line -->
<!-- end left side bar -->

-- ST FILE PHOTO

A LAW clerk whose taste for gambling on board cruise ships sank her into debt has booked herself seven years and two months behind bars. Her offences: Forging of payment vouchers that enabled her to misappropriate $1.55 million to feed her gambling habit, and counterfeiting of stamp duty certificates that netted her nearly a quarter of a million dollars. Irene Koh Lay Hong, 44, has so far returned $155,300. Of the $1.55 million she siphoned off, $1.3 million was from Sterling Law Corporation. During investigations, it came up that she also cheated other law firms of some $250,000 while working for them. She left Sterling in December 2008, when the firm's directors became suspicious.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.
<!-- story content : end -->