Serious Serial shoplifter Goh Lee Yin Suicide!!

[dr.wailing]

Apparently the Police, AG and even one Judge feels that she has gamed the system but they....

Aw c'mon, scroobal, mentally ill persons have no intentions of gaming the system...

 

[CoffeeAhSoh]

About 10 years ago, the last medical report stated that Kleptomania was no longer a factor as she began to steal only luxury goods. She had also gone to lengths of surreptitiously removing security sensor tags etc. She also switched from stealing to cheating and the planning was clearly nothing to do with Kleptomania. She used someone else's identity card to register a phone and with that phone cheated 3 women of luxury goods. In these cases she created false bank web pages ( she used to work as programmer) to show non-existent money transfer.

I understand that she was facing a detention order of 7 years in view of her on-going spree.

I have also come to find out a really sad story of her background. Her mother was a cleaner and her father a sailor who passed away when she was 17. Both she and sisters did very well in studies to graduates as engineers. She began stealing s a her primary schools days and the Police have extensive records of her a minor and they cannot reveal these. She was also caught stealing in other countries. After graduation she worked for SIA. Over a period of 20 years she had seen more than 10 psychiatrists and all of them after a period of time have refused to handle her. Some of them went out of their way and had given her jobs etc.

She has also been lucky as her sister in particular and her husbands family (who are wealthy) have done everything possible including having someone to be with her for 24 hrs supervision to help.

She has also known to courts with CJ Pung, VK Rajah and Chan Seng Onn having to deal with her and the courts have held special hearings from her as well.

I also understand that they have moved from "goal of rehabilitation" to "goal of public protection".

There is also another enigma - despite her poor background, her past 2 boyfriends and her husband are from wealthy professionals families.

Apparently the Police, AG and even one Judge feels that she has gamed the system but they all agree that she is the most complex case they have come across. Certain patterns were very clear, she would go on a spree when released on bail and take trivial things including newspapers from 7 Eleven and that when the suspicion started to grow.

Anyway it is a always sad case when a bright individual has to end her life in this way.

.................................

 

[bic_cherry]

About 10 years ago, the last medical report stated that Kleptomania was no longer a factor as she began to steal only luxury goods. She had also gone to lengths of surreptitiously removing security sensor tags etc. She also switched from stealing to cheating and the planning was clearly nothing to do with Kleptomania. She used someone else's identity card to register a phone and with that phone cheated 3 women of luxury goods. In these cases she created false bank web pages ( she used to work as programmer) to show non-existent money transfer.

I understand that she was facing a detention order of 7 years in view of her on-going spree.

I have also come to find out a really sad story of her background. Her mother was a cleaner and her father a sailor who passed away when she was 17. Both she and sisters did very well in studies to graduates as engineers. She began stealing s a her primary schools days and the Police have extensive records of her a minor and they cannot reveal these. She was also caught stealing in other countries. After graduation she worked for SIA. Over a period of 20 years she had seen more than 10 psychiatrists and all of them after a period of time have refused to handle her. Some of them went out of their way and had given her jobs etc.

She has also been lucky as her sister in particular and her husbands family (who are wealthy) have done everything possible including having someone to be with her for 24 hrs supervision to help.

She has also known to courts with CJ Pung, VK Rajah and Chan Seng Onn having to deal with her and the courts have held special hearings from her as well.

I also understand that they have moved from "goal of rehabilitation" to "goal of public protection".

There is also another enigma - despite her poor background, her past 2 boyfriends and her husband are from wealthy professionals families.

Apparently the Police, AG and even one Judge feels that she has gamed the system but they all agree that she is the most complex case they have come across. Certain patterns were very clear, she would go on a spree when released on bail and take trivial things including newspapers from 7 Eleven and that when the suspicion started to grow.

Anyway it is a always sad case when a bright individual has to end her life in this way.

Guess healthcare failed her despite her probably having consulted the most highly trained medical and psychology professionals at Mt Elizabeth hospital. As I have previously mentioned, I now think that the roots of her 'kleptomania' are a mix of social inequality, deprivation and greed, not a simple subconscious psychological mix to handle. Just because her overpriced (but kind hearted) shrink observed that other 'kleptomaniacs' didn't steal branded goods didn't change her condition although doubtlessly her own ruse did finally fail her as she exponentially fell from having the status of having a enviable medical condition to the status of a heinous criminal dangerous to all.

Unfortunately, your comment about judges having moved from "goal of rehabilitation" to "goal of public protection" reveals that in the areas of both healthcare and jurisprudence, standards in Singapore are FAR FROM FIRST CLASS. If the original goal was rehabilitation, then the reason why psychiatric treatment @Mt E hospital failed was because little by way of psychotherapy or group therapy (such as the alcoholics annonymous type for addiction problems) was provided which I feel she would desperately need. Many Singaporeans experience incarceration in drug rehabilitation centres (DRC) after arrest for illicit drug use and many drug treatments in these centres involve cold turkey to allow druggies to experience the full symptoms of withdrawal and appreciate their degree of dysfunction. Goh Lee Yin should have been sent to help the DRC inmates as well as participate in their group therapy sessions in which participants can discuss their unhealthy addictions (dependence) be it on alcohol, sex, gambling, drugs (or in Lee Yin's case, branded goods/ luxury lifestyle) which are all pathologic if inappropriate/ undeserved / not handled well.
The fault of the judiciary (bench) is that of assuming that Lee Yin had received the best medical and psychological attention (if not moral guidance) in Singapore which I guess was as case as her problem misdiagnosed. (I was expecting the judges to be more circumspect and draw inspiration from their experience in handling a multitude of drug addiction cases).

Of course the way Christianity is practised in Singapore could be blamed too as precious little by way of moral reasoning is practised as evidenced by pastor Kong Hee of City Harvest Church for example holding esteemed positions amongst protestant pastors in Singapore before he was convicted for covertly siphoning massive amounts of Church funds towards his wife's shot at greater riches vz contemporary music fame + fortune .

Greed is a sin universal to all mankind just as Adam and Eve partook of forbidden fruit against the moral instructions of God.

That the medical experts (u say 10 psychiatrist), judiciary and even the protestant church failed to spot this problem and instead went on an extreme wild goose chase, ending in their change of diagnosis if not change of heart only broke the spirit of Goh Lee Yin whom I believe was betrayed to believe firstly that she was ill but then later a heinous career criminal (detention order with no chance of parole) and facing 7years in prison away from her newborn must have left her totally broken if not confused. She was promised the world, and then lost it in the blink of an eye. Ultimately, jumping down from one of the many high rise buildings in Singapore seemed the only solution.

Goh Lee Yin is just one of many Singaporeans haunted by their own addictions fuelled by greed, deprivation and the stress of increasing wealth and opportunity inequality in Singapore society. But this case reveals many severe cracks in our self proclaimed world class leadership and expertise as professionals and tragically, more will succumb.
.

BTW: I used DRC as a convenient option because Singapore has so much experience dealing with drug and other addictions which ought to be common in a cosmopolitan city state, however, the focus is on good, guided group therapy and that is not limited to what is practised @ DRC.

 

[kelton65]

About 10 years ago, the last medical report stated that Kleptomania was no longer a factor as she began to steal only luxury goods. She had also gone to lengths of surreptitiously removing security sensor tags etc. She also switched from stealing to cheating and the planning was clearly nothing to do with Kleptomania. She used someone else's identity card to register a phone and with that phone cheated 3 women of luxury goods. In these cases she created false bank web pages ( she used to work as programmer) to show non-existent money transfer.

I understand that she was facing a detention order of 7 years in view of her on-going spree.

I have also come to find out a really sad story of her background. Her mother was a cleaner and her father a sailor who passed away when she was 17. Both she and sisters did very well in studies to graduates as engineers. She began stealing s a her primary schools days and the Police have extensive records of her a minor and they cannot reveal these. She was also caught stealing in other countries. After graduation she worked for SIA. Over a period of 20 years she had seen more than 10 psychiatrists and all of them after a period of time have refused to handle her. Some of them went out of their way and had given her jobs etc.

She has also been lucky as her sister in particular and her husbands family (who are wealthy) have done everything possible including having someone to be with her for 24 hrs supervision to help.

She has also known to courts with CJ Pung, VK Rajah and Chan Seng Onn having to deal with her and the courts have held special hearings from her as well.

I also understand that they have moved from "goal of rehabilitation" to "goal of public protection".

There is also another enigma - despite her poor background, her past 2 boyfriends and her husband are from wealthy professionals families.

Apparently the Police, AG and even one Judge feels that she has gamed the system but they all agree that she is the most complex case they have come across. Certain patterns were very clear, she would go on a spree when released on bail and take trivial things including newspapers from 7 Eleven and that when the suspicion started to grow.

Anyway it is a always sad case when a bright individual has to end her life in this way.

If what you say is true, then she should be locked up in IMH because her mental illness is clearly a threat to the public. Heck, if I was the judge, I think I will give her preventive detention as a sentence.

The fact she cheated others using the identity of others show she was fully aware of what she was doing and not the result of any mental illness.

She was clearly a privileged individual who can elicit public sympathy because of her good looks and the rich boyfriends she hooked up with because of it.

 

[scroobal]

Her's is a very complex story. There is a school of thought that the kleptomania diagnosis when she was a minor may created conditions that led to this rather than treating the underlying condition. I was shocked that she was treated with Prozac amongst other things which are more related to depression and this was nearly 20 years ago. Who knows?

Guess healthcare failed her despite her probably having consulted the most highly trained medical and psychology professionals at Mt Elizabeth hospital. As I have previously mentioned, I now think that the roots of her 'kleptomania' are a mix of social inequality, deprivation and greed, not a simple subconscious psychological mix to handle. Just because her overpriced (but kind hearted) shrink observed that other 'kleptomaniacs' didn't steal branded goods didn't change her condition although doubtlessly her own ruse did finally fail her as she exponentially fell from having the status of having a enviable medical condition to the status of a heinous criminal dangerous to all.

 

[scroobal]

She is not violent and I understand that everyone who has met her found her to be a very nice person. Thus the tremendous support from in-laws etc and medical professionals. Apparently the original diagnosis showed that she could not tell right from wrong and that she considered theft as a trivial matters. However since she was tagged a Kleptomania, fellow professionals kept to that line until 2006/2007 when the state's fresh diagnosis went the other way. She as I understand her other conditions, depressions being one and this has been there from the very start.

Despite all this and her poor background, she excelled in school and got 2:1 in Software Engineering. This is why the so many landmarks court decision had been made along the way based on her case. Truly a tragedy.

I do agree that the public had to be protected as this could not carry on. What is interesting is the press keep using the word "kleptomania" which was dispelled since 2007 and they also did not make it clear about the cheating case where she took great pains to hide her trail.

If what you say is true, then she should be locked up in IMH because her mental illness is clearly a threat to the public. Heck, if I was the judge, I think I will give her preventive detention as a sentence.

The fact she cheated others using the identity of others show she was fully aware of what she was doing and not the result of any mental illness.

She was clearly a privileged individual who can elicit public sympathy because of her good looks and the rich boyfriends she hooked up with because of it.

 

[CoffeeAhSoh]

Sad. The Moral of her Story ?

 

[Semaj2357]

Sad. The Moral of her Story ?

kleps should keep their hands to themselves

 

[bic_cherry]

Why isn't kleptomania categorised as an addiction like that to gambling, heroin, amphetamines and the like?
I am not an expert of have experience in this area but there are some differences in addictions versus mental conditions.
In addictions, chemicals or drugs usually change the mind function and take control on the condition of the addicts. Addicts have much control over it and they can choose whether to take the drugs and get addicted to it or not. Gambling, smoking, alcohol, drugs addicts usually have control over their condition in the initial stage. They can very much choose not to get hooked up with the condition. Much of the causes for addictions are peer pressure, curiosity, family nucleus and influences etc for them to get initially hooked on it.
For a mental condition like kleptomania, like hoarding, OCD usually the person will have no control over.
I believe the treatment order gives the professor a second chance. How well he work on his recovery or managing his symptoms after the end of the treatment will maybe see if he can continue with his profession. I believe the university will look at his condition and treatment outcome and assess his employability.
If i have a mental condition and commited a crime or break the law (one that do not hurt anyone or cause any serious damage to properties), i sure hope during interrogation the officer will be able to assess and send me to a treatment institution instead of putting me behind bars.

Hi photosnapper, did u just shoot your own foot? U say that people with kleptomania are 'a mental condition' that they have "no control over": does that make them more dangerous than drug addicts whom u say are more volitional (acting on personal choice)... Are not beserk, rabid animals promptly put down rather than being rehoused due to their dangerosity and very high propensity to bite again?

In Singapore's infamous Goh Lee Yin's case, I read on forums that she was treated by 10 specialist psychiatrist, all of whom either terminated their care for her or else revised their VIP/ royal diagnosis of 'kleptomania 'when she started going for more expensive stuff like handbags, ostensibly because the pleasure she'd derived was not limited to the act of not paying, but also material benefit from the value of goods fradulently possessed. I wonder if she would have committed suicide had she NOT been misled into beliving she had blue blood (be treated like a VIP with a very royal and privileged diagnosis), only to have the rug suddenly pulled from under her feet when the psychatrist revoked their 'protective' diagnosis leaving her naked and vulnerable before the courts- judges who seem sock puppets of the psychiatrist themselves.

Had the psychiatrists, in their zeal to be judges of guilt, exceed their authority and become the judges themselves by creating the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) just so that they could also get some cut in the judicial business of pardoning guilt? What science is many psychiatric diseases premised but vague 'chemical imbalance', the details of which are not understood.

All these kleptomaniacs should be heavily fined for their dishonest acts and also undergo counseling just like surely is done in drug rehabilitation centres to educate them about detriment that their acts bring to society: a bad influence on the young because many of these 'kleptomaniacs' are rich people with access to expensive psychiatrist in private practise, price inflation on all goods with greater hurt on the poor who have to share the costs of 'shrinkage' due to shoplifted goods, environmental degradation of the shoplifted goods just collect dust or are disposed off unused.

It is said that majority of rapist do not rape people with the primary intention if procreation, but to express domination and superiority over their victims. Kleptomaniacs do the same, with general society as their ultimate victims, and like rapist, usually out of sight but maybe caught on security camera.

To argue otherwise would be to worship the DSM V as holy text, their author psychiatric boards as gods and practising psychiatrist as bishops and priest.

A new religious movement premised on capitalism is born.

 

[bic_cherry]

Rich people also have problems. I suspect that the diagnosis of 'kleptomania' was invented by psychiatrists as a bespoke diagnosis for rich people to excuse themselves temporarily from charges of theft and to help psychiatrist get rich $$$ in the process ...

In reality, what is the big difference between the addiction (sadistic
fettish) to seeing shop owners (/society/the poor) suffer unnecessary losses (from shoplifting) to fettish for drugs like heroin? Isn't there some possible anti-social element to 'kleptomania' as there is in drug addiction too? Yet for rich dependents before the court, psychiatrist are climbing over themselves to provide bespoke treatment programmes and glowing prognosis reports so that their rich (anti-social) clients can receive public sympathy and stay out of jail. (Maybe a more convincing solution would be for these wealthy 'kleptomaniacs' to promise to donate 10- 100x the value of goods stolen if caught to children's cancer charities and for their homes to be regularly searched such that any item not backed by receipt of payment would be deemed shoplifted)...

In Goh Lee Yin's case, she was probably fooled by her own ruse and the $inspired attention and compassion by 'professionals': the many psychiatrist who supported her initial diagnosis who were probably driven more greatly by personal greed(wealth, fame from attentive Chief justices giving credit to bespoke psychiatric services for the RICH etc) than social good... only to PULL THE RUG FROM UNDER HER FEET when the charade (scandal) became too big to hide (turning the practise of psychiatry into a big joke (jeopardizing future $profitable use of 'kleptomania' as valid excuse)...

Goh Lee Yin's suicide is thus a tragedy of 1st world proportions: a warning against the $driven invention of bespoke diagnosis favouring the rich, but which are more harmful to society than the innovative use of ESTABLISHED methods ALREADY present (e.g. rehab treatments inspired by established drug rehab programmes, onerous and punitive $penalties wrt discipline for continued shoplifting which benefit the poor+ needy).

 

[batman1]

The cause of kleptomania originates from the bad role models of the PAP top brass.

 

[borom]

It is a sad fact of life that many people (esp those with power/influence/monies) can even get away with murder-witness the many crazy dictators in history eg the Kims of N Korea, the junta of Burma and closer to home, Duterte.
Whatever the late Ms Goh stole, it is insignificant if you compare with what may politicians stole from public funds eg Mrs Marcos, Suharto, Najib ect2 and the misuse of public funds, corruption, nepotism and cronyism that we see around this region.

At the end of the day, the individuals on the streets end up paying the price if there are inadequate protection of human rights and democratic values in society.
In Asia, it seems at the moment the S Koreans are on the right path as can be seen from the many politicians (including Presidents )who were sent to jail.
We should focus on the big criminals who cheat public funds by the billions and make life miserable for the ordinary folks

 

[mojito]

Not steal, just take without asking lah. When eat steamboat do you ask if you can take the fishball? Of course not. You take means it is yours. Why so hard to understand?

 

[rocket]

She is not violent and I understand that everyone who has met her found her to be a very nice person. Thus the tremendous support from in-laws etc and medical professionals. Apparently the original diagnosis showed that she could not tell right from wrong and that she considered theft as a trivial matters. However since she was tagged a Kleptomania, fellow professionals kept to that line until 2006/2007 when the state's fresh diagnosis went the other way. She as I understand her other conditions, depressions being one and this has been there from the very start.

Despite all this and her poor background, she excelled in school and got 2:1 in Software Engineering. This is why the so many landmarks court decision had been made along the way based on her case. Truly a tragedy.

I do agree that the public had to be protected as this could not carry on. What is interesting is the press keep using the word "kleptomania" which was dispelled since 2007 and they also did not make it clear about the cheating case where she took great pains to hide her trail.

It pinpoint to her own parents who is the cause.

 

[scroobal]

She had some complex issues but mistakenly believed it will protect her with her other issues. Many kids have come from similar background but we do not see them lift designer handbags. The report from one of her earlier psychiatrist report where she thought stealing was a trivial matter is quite telling.

It pinpoint to her own parents who is the cause.

 

[soikee]

my bil who used to work at Metro High Street in the 70s

told us that the very famous Dr Chan wife was also a Kleto

maybe those old birds who worked in MHS will know abt this case

our sg karate grand master Peter should know this case cos

he was the CSO at that time

Yes the late Dr Chan Ah Kow's beautiful wife, a former cabaret girl queen was a kleptomaniac and he made arrangements with a few departmental stores to let her steal.

 

[soikee]

She had some complex issues but mistakenly believed it will protect her with her other issues. Many kids have come from similar background but we do not see them lift designer handbags. The report from one of her earlier psychiatrist report where she thought stealing was a trivial matter is quite telling.

Poor girl, her loved ones should have done what Ah Kow did for his wife who stole without economic motive.

 

[bic_cherry]

Yes the late Dr Chan Ah Kow's beautiful wife, a former cabaret girl queen was a kleptomaniac and he made arrangements with a few departmental stores to let her steal.

Maybe 1970s haf so few dept stores, can easily pacify the handful of owners esp if one is very rich and influential, there are many many more stores in Singapore now, how to pacify all the owners???!!!...

I still think that had Goh been sent to prison/ sentenced @ first instance and herself (+ courts) not have been misled by money faced and snake oil selling psychiatrists, Goh Lee Yin would still be alive today (if not quite well), and not a pile of ashes after the satin rug was pulled from under her feet when all her admirers (and snake oil selling psychiatrist) suddenly had a change of heart when they suddenly retracted the exclusive, bespoke and privileged diagnosis (which was misplaced to begin with).

 

[rushifa666]

She just needed training. Once I am master she will never feel any other need

 

[rocket]

She just needed training. Once I am master she will never feel any other need

U make fun of a dead person who is in misery when alive.

U a dog father pig mother bastard.