http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_415238.html
Home > Breaking News > Singapore > Story
Aug 11, 2009
Jailed for threats and rash act
By Elena Chong
Mr Singh said Tan (left) fell in love with the victim and given her money numerous times. He even proposed to her. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
A MAN who threatened his former girlfriend and used his car to hit her stationary vehicle was jailed for nine months on Tuesday.
Tan Tow Kwang, 32, unemployed, did all these to the 38-year-old marketing executive after their relationship had turned sour.
The former senior operations executive had pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal intimidation, and one each of committing a rash act and grabbing the the victim's neck.
The offences occurred between March and May this year.
A district court heard last week that the victim, who has a six-year-old daughter, was at home in Punggol on March 3 when she received two text messages from Tan threatening to jump down with her daughter after she wanted to call it quits.
On April 10 he followed her car into a multi-storey carpark near her home. He got out of his car and she also alighted. Both then had a dispute.
Tan returned to his car and reversed it to hit her stationary vehicle repeatedly while the victim and her daughter stood next to it.
While out on bail, Tan rang up the victim on May 6 and threatened to kill her, her daughter and her mother.
Defence counsel Kertar Singh said his client was surfing a sex forum website on commercial sex in the middle of last year when he was attracted to a user name with photos of local women offering sex.
He sought her services and after a few occasions, she told him she was a divorcee with a five-year-old daughter and that her husband had abandoned her for a China woman.
Mr Singh said his client fell in love with her and given her money numerous times. He even proposed to her.
Even though they quarrelled frequently over money matters, the lawyer said his love for her was deep and intense.
Tan, who had two other charges considered, could have been jailed for up to six months and/or fined up to $2,500 for the rash act; and up to two years' jail and a fine for each criminal intimidation offence.