<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Woman guilty of using maids to clean office
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Former millionaire's ex-wife faces up to $5k fine on each of 4 charges </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Elena Chong, Courts Correspondent
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Ng was convicted after an 11-day trial of deploying her maids to clean her office. She is out on bail and will return next month for her lawyer to mitigate on her behalf. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->A BUSINESSWOMAN who made the news with a record $29 million divorce settlement six years ago was in the news again yesterday.
This time, Avatar Ng Ngah Len, 54, was found guilty of getting her foreign domestic workers to clean her office, when their work permits gave them clearance only to clean her home.
She was convicted by District Judge Lee Poh Choo on four charges of using her domestic maids to clean up Quakes Agency, a general insurance agency where she is a director.
Sentencing will take place later.
The offences took place in 2006 and 2007, first when Quakes was located at Textile Centre in Jalan Sultan, and later when it moved to Tanjong Pagar Road.
Over different periods during those two years, she used one or both maids hired for her River Valley condominium to clean the office.
Ng, who used to be known as Sandra Ng, denied the charges. She insisted that she never instructed her maids to clean the office, and that she had them with her in the office because she needed help with her bags and to keep her company.
She also suggested that she had been framed.
But the Manpower Ministry's prosecutor, Mr Choo Khai Woon, said it was clear from the maids' evidence that Ng had deployed them to the office to clean it up.
Mr Choo added that the credibility of the witnesses for the defence - among them Ng's landlord and her friend - was doubtful.
Ng is divorced from former millionaire Peter Kuah, who was ordered in 2002 to pay her a lump sum of $17 million for maintenance and her share of his assets. Following her appeal the next year, the High Court upped her share to $25 million and ordered Mr Kuah to pay her $20,250 in monthly maintenance for 16 years, making a total of $29 million.
There were no children from the 21-year union.
Mr Kuah, now 60 and believed to be in Malaysia, was made bankrupt in 1999.
Ng has claimed that she did not receive anything from the divorce settlement.
Her lawyer Amolat Singh said his client needed two weeks to raise the money for the fines she is expecting to have to pay, and to tender a written mitigation.
Ng, whose $6,000 bail was raised to $10,000, will return to court on March 11. She may be fined up to $5,000 on each of the four charges. [email protected]
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Former millionaire's ex-wife faces up to $5k fine on each of 4 charges </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Elena Chong, Courts Correspondent
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
Ng was convicted after an 11-day trial of deploying her maids to clean her office. She is out on bail and will return next month for her lawyer to mitigate on her behalf. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->A BUSINESSWOMAN who made the news with a record $29 million divorce settlement six years ago was in the news again yesterday.
This time, Avatar Ng Ngah Len, 54, was found guilty of getting her foreign domestic workers to clean her office, when their work permits gave them clearance only to clean her home.
She was convicted by District Judge Lee Poh Choo on four charges of using her domestic maids to clean up Quakes Agency, a general insurance agency where she is a director.
Sentencing will take place later.
The offences took place in 2006 and 2007, first when Quakes was located at Textile Centre in Jalan Sultan, and later when it moved to Tanjong Pagar Road.
Over different periods during those two years, she used one or both maids hired for her River Valley condominium to clean the office.
Ng, who used to be known as Sandra Ng, denied the charges. She insisted that she never instructed her maids to clean the office, and that she had them with her in the office because she needed help with her bags and to keep her company.
She also suggested that she had been framed.
But the Manpower Ministry's prosecutor, Mr Choo Khai Woon, said it was clear from the maids' evidence that Ng had deployed them to the office to clean it up.
Mr Choo added that the credibility of the witnesses for the defence - among them Ng's landlord and her friend - was doubtful.
Ng is divorced from former millionaire Peter Kuah, who was ordered in 2002 to pay her a lump sum of $17 million for maintenance and her share of his assets. Following her appeal the next year, the High Court upped her share to $25 million and ordered Mr Kuah to pay her $20,250 in monthly maintenance for 16 years, making a total of $29 million.
There were no children from the 21-year union.
Mr Kuah, now 60 and believed to be in Malaysia, was made bankrupt in 1999.
Ng has claimed that she did not receive anything from the divorce settlement.
Her lawyer Amolat Singh said his client needed two weeks to raise the money for the fines she is expecting to have to pay, and to tender a written mitigation.
Ng, whose $6,000 bail was raised to $10,000, will return to court on March 11. She may be fined up to $5,000 on each of the four charges. [email protected]
