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[Windsorlou]

Re: Money Laundering Hub


Ex-MD jailed a month for phantom worker scam

Published on Mar 6, 2012
By Khushwant Singh

Between May 2007 and February 2009, Wang Jianping paid the Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions for 41 Singaporeans to inflate his firm's allocation for work passes for foreign employees.

The locals were all phantom workers, who did not work for him, and on Tuesday, Wang, a China national and a permanent resident, pleaded guilty to making three false statements to the Controller of Work Passes.

Another 17 similar charges were taken into consideration by District Judge Mathew Joseph when meting out the sentence. Wang, 55, was jailed a month.

He committed the offences while running construction firm Giantwill located at the industrial park at Kaki Bukit Avenue 1. In October 2009, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) received information of possible infringements by the firm. Investigations then revealed that Wang had lied in his applications for work permits that the CPF accounts were of bona fide employees.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.

 

[General Veers]

Romanians charged with receiving stolen goods absent from court

Published on Mar 6, 2012
By Fiona Low

A Romanian man and woman who were charged with dishonestly receiving stolen items were due in court on Tuesday, but they were no where to be seen.

Their lawyer Peter Fernando said he received an e-mail on Monday - when the pair was supposed to return to the country - informing that both accused are still in Romania due to medical reasons.

The two were first charged on Feb 21, after they allegedly knowingly received 30 different stolen items on the afternoon of Feb 5 at Orchard Hotel. The items include tobacco products, perfumes and cosmetics.

Mr Fernando said businessman Cristian Bogdan, 35, was unable to travel due to his 'mental and physical state', while the second accused, kindergarten teacher Iulia Anamaria Dobrin, 31, had been hospitalised at the Bucharest Emergency University Hospital.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.

 

[Orochi]

Indonesian maid charged with stealing $37k from employer

Published on Mar 7, 2012
By Elena Chong

An Indonesian maid has been charged with stealing $37,000 from her employer.

Atik Yuli Hastuti, 34, was charged a week ago with stealing a DBS ATM card from her employer, Ms Deborah Ann Henretta, 50, Procter & Gamble's group president for Asia.

The theft took place at Ms Henretta's Cluny Park Road house on Feb 22.

Nineteen charges of theft of cash totalling $37,000 from her employer were filed against her on Wednesday.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.

 

[Krizalid]

Re: British banker dies in fall from rooftop bar at luxury Singapore hotel


Police probing how two expats jumped bail: DPM Teo

Published on Mar 9, 2012

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Among the three charged with assault, Nathan Robert Miller was sentenced to jail, but Robert James Springall (above) and Robert Stephen Dahlberg jumped bail. -- TNP FILE PHOTOS​

Among the three charged with assault, Nathan Robert Miller was sentenced to jail, but Robert James Springall and Robert Stephen Dahlberg (above) jumped bail. -- TNP FILE PHOTOS​

The police are looking into how two expatriates jumped bail, and will discipline the officers responsible if lapses or negligence are uncovered.

Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, who is also the Home Affairs Minister, disclosed on Thursday that the internal inquiry is underway. It will be completed next month.

Three expatriates - Australian business development manager Nathan Robert Miller, and options brokers Robert Stephen Dahlberg, a New Zealander, and Robert James Springall, a Briton - were charged in court with assault last July over a brawl at Suntec City in 2010.

Miller pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to three weeks' jail last month.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.

 

[General Veers]

Re: NZ man jumps bail, warrant of arrest issued


Overseas video link testimony refused in drug trafficking case

Published on Mar 14, 2012
By K. C. Vijayan

FIVE witnesses in a drug trafficking case have been told they cannot testify by video link from South Korea.

The High Court refused to allow them to give evidence on behalf of Kim Gwang Seok, who faces the death penalty if convicted.

This is because they are based in Seoul, and video link evidence is allowed in criminal cases only when the witness is in Singapore.

Kim, 42, was caught with heroin in his shoes at Changi Airport, but claims he thought he was actually carrying computer chips.

He wants his five fellow South Koreans to support his version of events. However, three of them cannot take time off work to travel to Singapore, one has recently given birth and the fifth is in jail in South Korea.

'The position remains today that a witness in criminal proceedings has to be in Singapore before he or she can testify via video link,' said Justice Tay Yong Kwang, in judgment grounds released yesterday.

Kim's lawyers now plan to ask the Court of Appeal to reverse the judge's decision. The case, believed to be the first of its kind reported here, is expected to clarify this area of the law.

Lawyers say video link evidence from overseas is not allowed in case it is abused, for example, if someone outside the court's jurisdiction makes a false confession to get the accused off the hook.

Kim and two other men have been charged with trying to smuggle 1.5 kg of heroin onto a flight bound for Sydney in 2009. The trio were arrested by Central Narcotics Bureau officers at the departure hall in Terminal 3.

However, Kim says he had no idea his shoes contained drugs. Instead, he claims he had been asked to carry credit card chips by Lee Byong Gyun, who is now serving time in a South Korean prison.

He also argues that Lee's nieces, Ms Kwak Jisuk and Ms Kwak Jihye, carried computer chips in a similar way, along with a man called Im Jongshin. Kim wants these four witnesses to confirm his account, along with the women's mother, Lee Myung Soon.

The lawyers assigned to him, Mr Tito Isaac and Mr Jonathan Wong, argued that his defence would be 'highly prejudiced' if the five did not give evidence. They pointed out that the authorities had arranged for seven witnesses to testify via video link from Singapore in the ongoing case of former Romanian charge d'affaires Silviu Ionescu, who is being prosecuted in Bucharest over an alleged hit-and-run accident in Bukit Panjang.

Justice Tay said Parliament did not intend to change the law on video link evidence, even if other countries had done so. He added that the financial and personal problems that prevented four of the witnesses from coming here were not 'insuperable', and urged defence lawyers to work out a solution with the authorities.

Source: Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Ltd

 

[General Veers]

Maid jailed 3 weeks for stealing $1,000 from employer

Published on Mar 14, 2012

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Fitri's employer sent her back to the maid agency a day after the March 5 theft. At the agency, the maid then passed the money to a countrywoman called Rohani. -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE

Four months into her work, an Indonesian maid went into a bedroom of her employer's house in Sembawang Place to look for things to steal.

She found some money in a drawer and took a $1,000 note.

When the March 5 theft was discovered an hour later, her employer suspected Fitri Heniyati was the culprit and sent the 24-year-old back to the maid agency the next day.

The police were not notified. At the maid agency in Yishun Central, Fitri passed the money to a countrywoman called Rohani, who was waiting to be assigned an employer.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.
​

 

[Krizalid]

Re: He Never Said Sorry


China national acquitted of committing trespass at MBS

Published on Mar 16, 2012

30-year-old Chinese business executive Chen Xi was acquitted of committing trespass at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel by entering the room of two Taiwanese women but still faces a charge of outraging the modesty of one of them at about 5.15am on Sept 3, 2011. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW

By Khushwant Singh

A Chinese national was acquitted of committing trespass at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel by entering the room occupied by two Taiwanese women with the intention of causing alarm.

Business executive Chen Xi, 30, still faces a charge of outraging the modesty of one of the women at about 5.15am on Sept 3, 2011.

The prosecution had proceeded with the criminal trespass charge but after hearing the three-day trial, District Judge Jasvender Kaur said on Friday that the prosecution had failed to challenge vital parts of Chen?s testimony and to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

Chen had testified that he had returned to his room at 3.30am after celebratory drinks following a successful business meeting. Some hours later, he woke up as he felt warm and went out onto the balcony to have a cigarette. He was dizzy and in the throes of a hangover.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.
​

 

[General Veers]

Re: Woman charged with assaulting SMRT staff


Cleaner hit by taxi at Budget Terminal, dies

Published on Mar 17, 2012

A Citycab taxi slammed into the entrance next to MacDonald's at Budget Terminal and killed a cleaner on Saturday, March 17. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW

By Carolyn Khew

A 34-year-old man died on Saturday morning after he was hit by a taxi at the driveway in front of the Budget Terminal.

The Indian man, who was a cleaner on duty at the airport, was pronounced dead at the scene by the paramedics at 7.13am.

At about 6.50am, the police were informed of an assault by a passenger on a 57-year-old taxi driver along the stretch of Airport Boulevard in front of SATS In-flight Catering Centre 1.

According to a statement released by Comfort Delgro, the passenger who was headed for Changi Airport started getting violent towards the taxi driver during the journey.

The taxi driver later activated the distress button and got out of the cab.

Police said that the passenger was later seen re-entering the taxi and driving towards the direction of the Budget Terminal.

The passenger who drove the taxi is a 30-year-old Chinese National. He was detained at the scene.

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.​

 

[General Veers]

Re: Bedok murder-suicide: Man suspected wife of having affair


Accountant fined for misappropriating money from employer
Posted: 20 March 2012 1700 hrs

SINGAPORE: An accountant was fined S$3,000 for misappropriating money from her former employer.

Thirty-nine-year-old Torres Necitas Mariano, a Filipino, had pleaded guilty to misappropriating a cheque worth more than S$3,600 belonging to her then employer, AJ Property Services Pte Ltd.

She had allegedly committed the offence on August 18 last year as an accountant of the firm, which is located in Ang Mo Kio.

Mariano had worked for AJ Property since October 2010 and was found to have committed the offence when the Central Provident Fund said it did not receive the cheque.

She could have been jailed up to 15 years and fined but the district judge had taken into account that full restitution had been made to her former employer.

- CNA/fa

 

[Krizalid]

7 nabbed for suspected involvement in loanshark syndicate
Posted: 20 March 2012 2300 hrs

SINGAPORE : Police have arrested seven people, including four Singaporeans and three Vietnamese, who are believed to be part of a loanshark syndicate.

The suspects are aged between 31 and 46.

They were nabbed in simultaneous raids in areas such as Serangoon and Hougang.

More than S$70,000 in Singapore and foreign currency was seized.

Several mobile phones, bank cards, a bank book, credit cards and notebooks were also seized.

Initial investigations revealed that the suspects were involved in recruiting Vietnamese to come to Singapore to carry out loanshark harassment acts.

They also provided accommodation for the Vietnamese harassers after they entered Singapore.

- CNA/ms

 

[Windsorlou]

Man faces death penalty for stabbing and killing woman

Published on Mar 21, 2012

Indian national Bijukumar Remadevi Nair Gopinathan, 36, was convicted of the murder of Ms Pascua and given the mandatory death penalty on Wednesday. -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE

By Selina Lum

Indian national Bijukumar Remadevi Nair Gopinathan, 36, was convicted of the murder of Filipina Roselyn Reyes Pascua and given the mandatory death penalty on Wednesday.

Justice Choo Han Teck said that the prosecution had proved its case against Gopinathan beyond a reasonable doubt.

Ms Pascua was found in her room at Peony Mansion, Bencoolen Street on March 15, 2010.

She was stabbed multiple times in the chest, abdomen, neck and in her genital area, but the fatal injury was a stab that went through her ribs and into her heart.

Gopinathan did not deny stabbing Ms Pascua, who he said had solicited him for sex, but contended that he had acted under grave and sudden provocation.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.​

 

[Cloud]

Do you think that Shit Times will provide readers his photo?

HR firm manager jailed 9 months for sex with a minor

Published on Mar 23, 2012

[url]http://www.facebook.com/sarankumar.kanmani[/URL]

Kanmani Saran Kumar was jailed nine months for having sex with a minor. -- ST GENERIC PHOTOBy Khushwant SinghHe took a teen to his apartment and later contacted her family when she did not wish to return home.

Kanmani Saran Kumar even told them he had been intimate with her and on Friday, the 25-year-old was jailed nine months for having sex with a minor.

The Indian national and permanent resident - who works as a manager in a human resource firm - pleaded guilty on March 2, 2012.

The district court then heard that he got to know the secondary school student - who posed as a 24-year-old on social networking website Facebook - in September 2010.

The following month, they met at the McDonald's outlet in East Coast at 5pm.He had remarked that she looked no older than 18 or 19 but she said she did not wish to discuss her age.

They went to his rented apartment that he shared with three of his friends. The couple talked some more and then spent the night together.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.

 

[General Veers]

Bird smuggling: Malaysian trader fined $6,000

Published on Mar 24, 2012

The three Oriental White-eye songbirds (above) were packed into narrow PVC pipes placed in a basket, covered with a face towel, and put on the front passenger seat of Yee's car. They stayed there for more than six hours. -- PHOTOS: AVA

A Malaysian man was on Friday fined $6,000 for trying to smuggle three birds through the Woodlands Checkpoint on Wednesday.

Yee Shen Yaw, 38, had packed the birds into narrow PVC pipes hidden under a piece of cloth in his car.

He was charged with importing the animals into Singapore without a licence, and unreasonably causing unnecessary suffering to the animals.

Yee, who is a trader dealing in bird cages and bird food, tried to enter the country at about 6.45am.

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.

 

[Klytus]

Three directors charged with conspiring to cheat investors
By Alvina Soh | Posted: 27 March 2012 2009 hrs

SINGAPORE : Three directors of investment firm Profitable Plots were charged on Tuesday with conspiring to cheat investors of US$2.4 million.

They are Britons 58-year-old Timothy Nicholas Goldring and 53-year-old John Andrew Nordmann, and Nordmann's Singaporean wife, 44-year-old Geraldine Anthony Thomas.

The trio, who allegedly committed the offences between 2008 and 2010, were charged with 86 counts of abetment by conspiracy.

They allegedly duped their victims into investing in a scheme to buy a product, Boron CLS Bond, a chemical-based lubricant technology.

The victims were then allegedly deceived into forking out between US$2,000 and US$300,000 each time.

Their case will be mentioned again on April 10.

For abetment by conspiracy, they could each be jailed up to 10 years and fined.

- CNA/ms

 

[Orochi]

Ex-employment agent gets jail
Posted: 26 March 2012 2154 hrs

SINGAPORE: A former employment agent has been sentenced to four weeks' jail for abetting a false statement of S Pass holders' salaries.

This is the first time a custodial sentence has been meted out to an employment agent for abetting a false statement of S Pass holders' salaries.

Forty-three-year-old Singapore Permanent Resident Shokkanarayanan Ramakrishnan was a former employment agent (EA) of Islets Solutions Pte Ltd.

He faced four charges of intentionally aiding an employer to falsely over-declare the monthly salaries of four S Pass holders in their S Pass application and declaration forms.

In his capacity as an EA to the employer, Shokkanarayanan was aware of the criteria to qualify for an S Pass, and knew that payment of a minimum salary was one of the considerations for granting such a work pass.

However, Shokkanarayanan approached the employer and advised the employer to declare the false monthly salaries of the four S Pass holders.

He masterminded the offences and assisted to prepare and submit the S Pass applications.

Shokkanarayanan also prepared fake salary vouchers in an attempt to cover up, during investigations initiated. The scam was finally exposed during investigations.

For committing the above offences, Shokkanarayanan's EA licence was revoked on 24 October 2011 and his security deposit was forfeited.

Shokkanarayanan is on bail pending his appeal.

The Ministry of Manpower said in 2011, 78 employers were prosecuted and convicted of false declaration offences.

Four individuals and one company were also prosecuted and convicted of kickback offences in 2011.

- CNA/wk

 

[General Veers]

Duo nabbed for stealing on SIA flight

Published on Mar 27, 2012

While the passengers of a Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight were watching videos or sleeping on Sunday, two men were helping themselves to valuables in their carry-on bags.

The duo, both Chinese nationals, rifled through the bags that had been stowed in overhead cabins looking for valuables. In one case, they struck gold - US$5,000 (S$6,300) in a laptop bag.

But an eagle-eyed crew member cottoned on to their game: By the time the Jakarta-Singapore flight landed at Changi Airport, the police were waiting for the pair.

Several such thefts have happened in the last month. Police reports have been made, and airlines and their crew alerted to this.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.

 

[General Veers]

Man sentenced to 19 years' jail, 24 strokes for robbery spree

Published on Mar 27, 2012

Ellarry Puling, who was sentenced on Tuesday to 19 years? imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane. -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE

By Selina Lum

A 28-year-old dish-washer from Sabah was on Tuesday jailed 19 years and ordered to be caned 24 strokes for committing a series of violent robberies within a month in 2008.

Ellarry Puling was initially charged for murder together with his accomplice, construction worker Fabian Adiu Edwin, for a fatal attack on security guard Loh Ee Hui while robbing him. Fabian was convicted of murder, but Ellarry escaped the death penalty and was instead found guilty of a lesser charge of robbery with hurt.

On Tuesday, Ellarry was sentenced for that charge as well as five other charges of robbery with hurt relating to separate incidents.

The court heard that Ellarry and Fabian were childhood friends who met again in Singapore and hit on a plan to commit robbery.

Their modus operandi was to prowl the streets for potential victims carrying mobile phones, thick wallets and other valuables like cash cards.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.

 

[Shermie]

Drug trafficker jailed 21 years, to be caned 15 strokes

Published on Mar 28, 2012
By Selina Lum

A 28-year-old Malaysian drug trafficker was jailed 21 years and ordered to be caned 15 strokes on Wednesday.

Devanatan Naggan, who worked at a cement factory here, was stopped at the Woodlands Checkpoint while riding his motorcycle into Singapore on the evening of May 12, 2010,

A search by Central Narcotics Bureau officers found two plastic packets of heroin stashed between the inner styrofoam cushion and hard casing of his motorcycle helmet.

The two packets were analysed to contain not less than 51.41g of heroin. But the prosecution decided to reduce the charge against Devanatan to a non-capital one, which stated that he had trafficked in not less than 14.99g of heroin.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.

 

[Orochi]

Bird smuggler jailed 2 weeks and fined $4,000

Published on Mar 29, 2012
By Khushwant Singh

The 24 hatchlings were each crammed into a tiny box hidden in a pouch attached to his waist under his clothes

In the 2 1/2 hours Lim Chia Ming took to travel from Batam to Singapore, seven of the Oriental White-eye birds had died.

On Thursday, the 55-year-old Malaysian was jailed two weeks for bringing in the birds without a licence from the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA).

In addition he was fined $4,000 for causing unnecessary suffering to the hatchlings by confining them in spaces too small and restrictive. He had pleaded guilty to both charges.

Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.

 

[Westwood]

Man charged for causing death in hit and run accident

Published on Apr 3, 2012

By Elena Chong

A motorist was charged on Tuesday with causing the death of a cabby in a hit and run accident along an expressway last August.

Malaysian Yeo Yee Kuan, 30, an IT consultant, faces four charges.

He is alleged to have caused the death of Mr Foo Ching Fwee while the 72-year-old was walking towards the driver's side door of his taxi which had stopped at the left road shoulder of the Pan-Island Expressway at about 1.20am on Aug 12, 2011.

Mr Foo had apparently stopped along the road shoulder to retrieve a plastic bag from the boot of the vehicle for a passenger who felt sick.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.