https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...ng-tan-nam-seng-spencer-tuppani-jail-13128710
Tan Nam Seng, 72, pleaded guilty last month to a charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder by stabbing 38-year-old Spencer Tuppani near Boon Tat Street three years ago.
Tan's actions came after Mr Tuppani made several business moves that Tan perceived as a ploy to cheat him of his company. They also lived in the same household, even after Tan's daughter discovered Mr Tuppani's affair with another woman and the couple was quarrelling frequently.
The accused told Mr Tuppani "you are too much" in Hokkien, before stabbing him three times in quick succession and following the victim as he stumbled away and collapsed in front of an F&B outlet. Tan stood over his son-in-law and stopped others from helping him, telling them to "let him die" and that "I wish to kill him". Before the police arrived, Tan kicked the younger man's face twice, before calling his daughter.
Defence lawyer Wee Pan Lee asked for seven-and-a-half years' jail. He said Tan is a divorcee who received only primary school education, beginning work as a coolie for a transport contractor in his early teens.
He worked his way up to become a ferry clerk and later started his own shipping and transport cargo company at the age of 27.
At its peak, the group of companies employed more than a thousand people, and Tan intended to groom Mr Tuppani to run the business with his daughters after retirement.
However, when Mr Tuppani handled the sale of the business, Tan and his eldest daughter each received only S$450,000 instead of the S$1 million Tan said Mr Tuppani had promised. They also were not given the shares in the new company promised by Mr Tuppani, said the defence.
Over the years, Mr Tuppani hired his parents as employees and used company funds to pay for his younger brother's overseas education. "He used company funds to fund his own lavish lifestyle ... for expensive cars, luxury watches and the upkeep of (his) mistresses," said Mr Wee.
Tan later discovered his daughter's marital woes with Mr Tuppani, who had been "involved in a string of extramarital affairs". Tan's daughter kept it from her father so as not to aggrieve him. She had conceived a fourth child in 2015 but "was forced to terminate this pregnancy by Spencer", claimed Mr Wee.
Tan began to realise that Mr Tuppani would not honour his word to return company shares to him and his daughter, and realised his son-in-law had been surreptitiously recording arguments with his daughter to use in divorce proceedings, going against his word to Tan not to fight over custody.
Mr Tuppani also suspended Tan's other daughter from the company and used vulgarities against Tan's ex-wife in an argument.
"It dawned upon the accused that he had fallen victim to Spencer’s ploy and it was planned all along to keep (the) shares and balance of cash for himself, and the constant reassurances and promises were lies and were all part of Spencer’s ploy to destroy the family," said Mr Wee.
