Conman gets 3.5 years

A conman who cheated 10 victims of about $215,000 over the past decade was sentenced to a total of 42 months jail on Monday on nine charges.

Azman Bachok, 41, unemployed, admitted to seven charges of cheating, one count each of forgery and theft between 1998 and last November.

A district court heard that he used ruses such as getting his victim to be his cleaning contract partner, claiming to be an Australian and being able to get jobs for his friends Down Under, and getting loans from his victims to settle his legal fees before he could get hold of his civil suit claims.

He also stole $500 from a 52-year-old colleague who had asked him to withdraw $1,000 on her behalf from the ATM on Nov 20, 2004.

Instead, he withdrew $1,500 without her knowledge and kept $500 for himself. (story)

Another family charged with maid abuse

Yet another family has been hauled to court for maid abuse.On Monday, an 18-year-old girl, together with her mother and mum’s friend, was accused of pulling out two front teeth of Indonesian maid Badingah at a flat in Jalan Minyak off Chin Swee Road.

Nur Rizan Mohd Sazali, who does administration work, is said to have done this with the help of the maid’s employer, Elsa Elyana Said, 24, and at the instigation of her mother, Maselly Abdul Aziz, 37, unemployed.

Her elder brother, Muhammad Iz’aan, 19, a waiter, faces one charge each of maid abuse and wrongful restraint.

Nur Rizan is also accused of using an iron rod and cane to hit the back of Ms Badingah, pouring hot wax onto her head, and restraining her by tying the victim’s hands with a bath robe.

Maselly allegedly used an iron rod to hit Ms Badingah on the head, abetted Nur Rizan to cause grievous hurt to her in the teeth incident, poured hot water onto the maid’s private part, and threatened to kill her if she did not return the money.

The last charge also states that she was holding onto two knives when she made the threat on July 26 last year. (story)

Malaysian family charged with human smuggling

A Malaysian woman and her two grown children were charged on Friday with trying to sneak three Sri Lankan kids to London. The trio were arrested Thursday evening at Changi Airport after a security officer suspected the children’s identities did not match the Malaysian passports they held.

The kids, all about 11 years old, were about to board a plane for London with the suspects, according to the charges filed.

Police are probing whether the incident is connected to a larger child-smuggling operation. Police spokesman Ng Siew Hua said the kids be cared for while investigations continue.

Looking grim, Madam Vigiletchumi Suparayan, 61, was produced at a special court session yesterday with her son Sangar Shanmugam, 39, and daughter Pathmavathy Shanmugam, 31.

They were charged with conspiring with others to bring the three children to London. (story)

David Rasif’s legal troubles piling up

The high Court on Monday issued a warrant of arrest against a friend of David Rasif who had helped the fugitive lawyer move $985,000 to Vietnam.The development came at the end of a hearing into a multi-million dollar civil suit brought by an American couple to recover some of the $10.7 million they had entrusted to Rasif’s firm to buy a house.

Rasif, last seen in Bangkok in June 2006, is a wanted man after absconding with $12 million in clients’ funds.

The defendants include a high-end jewellery store where Rasif went on a $2 million shopping spree as well as pub owner Freddy Lim Soon Kiang, his long-time friend. When the trial began in June last year, the court heard that Mr Lim had opened a bank account in Ho Chi Minh City.

He helped Rasif move US$620,000 - the equivalent of S$985,180 at the time - from the clients’ account of his law firm to the Vietnam account. (story)

Wanted: Wang Xin

Wang Xin, the general manager of S-League football club Liaoning Guangyuan, is now a wanted man.

The 40-year-old Chinese national was to be charged on Wednesday on 25 counts of match-fixing, but failed to turn up in court.

The charges allege that he offered bribes to eight Liaoning players to fix the scoreline of six S-League matches last season.

Wang’s arrest was announced by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) on Jan 7. Subsequently, the ex-Chinese national youth footballer applied to the High Court for permission to return to China to settle personal matters. (story)

Singaporeans bilked for over $300k in phone scams

Singaporeans were conned of over $300,000 in telephone scams over the past four months. Police said 29 victims were scammed by people claiming to be police officers or Supreme Court staff. These victims lost a total of $275,500.

Another two were cheated of more than $50,000 after they were tricked into believing that their relatives have been kidnapped.

In a press statement on Saturday, police said the impersonation scam first came to light in September and as of Dec 6, 224 cases have been reported.

The conmen pose as police and court officers and accuse their victims of being involved in criminal acts or failing to attend court.

To avoid punishment, victims are told to transfer money to the officer’s bank account. (story)

Singapore closes Pedra Branca case with strong arguments

Singapore played its trump card in the Pedra Branca case on Tuesday as it wrapped up its oral pleadings before an international court. It argued that its claim to the disputed island stands on two legs - lawful acquisition of title between 1847 and 1851 when the British built Horsburgh Lighthouse there, and sovereign acts carried out over 150 years.

Malaysia’s claim, however, stands on only one leg: its claim that the Johor Sultanate had original title to the island since time immemorial.

Singapore proposed to the court that if neither side has proven it had title to the disputed island in 1851, then Singapore’s claim must prevail over Malaysia’s because it alone has carried out state activities on the island.

In inviting the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to look at the case in this light, Singapore’s Ambassador-at-large Tommy Koh said it was an approach that was bound to cause Malaysia concern. (story)

Pedra Branca: Malaysia’s allegations baseless

Deputy Prime Minister and Law Minister S Jayakumar has called Malaysia’s allegations in the two sides’ dispute over Pedra Branca ‘baseless’ and ‘distracting’. He was speaking on Monday at the International Court of Justice at The Hague in the Netherlands on the first of a two-day round of rebuttals for the Singapore side, after both countries had presented their main arguments to the Court in the past fortnight.

‘During Singapore’s first round oral pleadings, we have focused our presentations purely on legal and factual issues in dispute between the parties,’ said Prof Jayakumar. (link)

Weeping: great way to get court adjourned

The woman suing the Redemptorist Order of Novena Church and its priests and choir members - 51-year-old Madam Amutha Valli - immediately buried her face in her hands and wept uncontrollably, even before she could finish taking the oath in court on Wednesday afternoon.It was her first appearance in the Supreme Court since the trial began a week ago - but it only lasted for less than an hour.

As her lawyer, Mr R.J Bajwa read out her 13-page affidavit to her, she took great difficulty to reply between her sobbing, wiping her tears with her handkerchief.

In between tears, Madam Valli said: ‘Don’t touch me…don’t touch me’, before requesting to take her medication.

Her daughter, 22-year-old Subashini Jeyabal, was seen in court shaking her head as her mother broke down.

Her inability to compose herself on the stand finally led Justice Lee to adjourn the trial to Thursday. (story)