Retired eye surgeon takes ex-lawyer to court

[Shin Orochi]

Retired eye surgeon takes ex-lawyer to court over allegations of misuse of funds

by Ong Dai Lin
05:55 AM Jul 13, 2010

Richmond Park condominium.

<script type="text/javascript"> var fontIndex = 2; var fontSize = new Array('0.63em', '0.69em', '0.75em', '0.88em', '1em', '1.13em'); </script> SINGAPORE - A 71-year-old retired eye surgeon is taking a former senior lawyer to court following the latter's allegations that he had misappropriated $3,000 from their condominium's management council's funds.

Former eye surgeon Dr David Tan Soo Leng is alleged to have misappropriated the money when he was the chairman of the management council of Richmond Park (picture) in the Orchard Road area from 2000 to 2008.

The man who had levelled the allegations is former senior lawyer Arjan Bhisham Chotrani, soon after he unseated Dr Tan from the chairman's post in November 2008.

Dr Tan is accusing Mr Chotrani of embarking on a campaign to harass and run him down. He is taking issue with Mr Chotrani's allegations made in a letter to the condo's management council members and representatives of Knight Frank, the condo's managing agent.

The allegations - that he had used the $3,000 from the management council's petty cash float for his own use - are also contained in an annual report. Dr Tan said that he has always made reimbursement claims only for purchases that he was able to substantiate with original receipts and these were always checked by a number of persons before payment vouchers were issued.

He also claimed that Mr Chotrani had taken issue with a number of decisions taken by the previous management councils, particularly with a by-law that was approved to ban smoking in the condominium's common areas.

Dr Tan's lawyers from Drew and Napier say that Mr Chotrani's actions have "succeeded in dealing a huge blow to Dr Tan's standing as an honourable retired eye surgeon and prominent figure in Richmond Park".

Mr Chotrani, who is represented by lawyers from Mahmood Gaznavi and Partners, said that he ran the two statements past the management council members before publishing them and he was discharging his duty as the chairman, and not in his personal capacity.

He denies that he was motivated by any sort of malice against Dr Tan and had never met Dr Tan until November 2008 when he assumed the position of chairman of the management council.

The former senior lawyer, who stopped practising when he was made a bankrupt in 1999, said that Dr Tan's reliance on the smoking by-law as the basis of Mr Chotrani's malice is "unsustainable" as the event "never operated on his mind at all".

Mr Chotrani, whose wife's company owned three units in Richmond Park but has since sold two, has been discharged as a bankrupt. The hearing continues.