Jul 13, 2010
Offender now a wanted man
<!-- by line --> By Selina Lum
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The events manager, who has a string of 13 convictions for housebreaking, theft, cheating, forgery and football match-fixing, had filed an appeal against his sentence of five years' corrective training for throwing himself against an auxiliary police officer and injuring him while driving off. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
A RECALCITRANT offender who failed to show up at his appeal hearing on Tuesday is now a wanted man. The High Court dismissed the appeal by Wilson Raj Perumal, 44, and issued a warrant for his arrest. His mother could stand to lose the $80,000 she posted as bail for him in February.
The events manager, who has a string of 13 convictions for housebreaking, theft, cheating, forgery and football match-fixing, had filed an appeal against his sentence of five years' corrective training for throwing himself against an auxiliary police officer and injuring him while driving off.
Corrective training, which can last five to 14 years, is a regime for repeat offenders like Wilson Raj. He had engaged prominent criminal lawyer Subhas Anandan to handle his appeal for his latest run-in with the law, but separately hired lawyer M. Ravi to file a petition, called a criminal revision, to retract his guilty plea.
When Wilson Raj failed to show up in Justice V. K. Rajah's court on Tuesday, time was given to him until after the day's last case had been heard to turn up. But by then, he was still a no-show, even though his mother and sister were present. The court was told that efforts to find him had failed.
Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of the Straits Times.
