DJ murder, judge explains sentence

A high court judge has explained why he jailed a woman who plotted the murder of her husband for only nine years, rather than throw her into prison for life.

Justice Chan Seng Onn said Aniza Essa, 25, was not likely to repeat her offence and, therefore, did not need to be locked up for good.

Prosecutors, who had asked that Aniza be sentenced to life imprisonment, are appealing against the nine-year jail term.

She had pleaded guilty to getting her 16-year-old lover to kill her husband Manap Sarlip outside the couple’s flat.

Justice Chan said the prosecution’s concern that Aniza might do the same again if released from jail was ‘highly speculative’.

Among other things, prosecutors had suggested in their written submissions that if, in the future, she were to enter into a second abusive or difficult marriage, she could fall into depression again and resort to the same violence to solve her problem. (story)

William Ding Chun Fong wins appeal

Former teacher William Ding Chun Fong, 36, on Wednesday won his appeal against conviction for molesting two schoolboys.

Four secondary school students accused Ding of molesting them in separate incidents between 2001 and 2005.

Ding denied the accusations and fought the case in an 80-day trial that spanned nine months.

He was found guilty in March last year by District Judge Jasbendar Kaur on three charges involving two boys and sentenced to a year’s jail. Ding was acquitted of six other charges involving the other two boys.

Ding choked back tears as an appeal judge on Wednesday acquitted him of molesting two schoolboys.

On hearing that he had won his appeal against his conviction last year by a lower court, he first appeared stunned. (story)

Singaporean drug mule jailed 5 years

A Singaporean man who swallowed more than A$500,000 worth of heroin and then tried to smuggle it into Australia, was jailed five years by a court in Brisbane on Tuesday. Ng Teck Boon, 40, had 91 packets of heroin in his stomach when he was arrested at Brisbane International Airport on June 27 last year, The the Supreme Court in Brisbane was told.

He pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one count of importing a marketable quantity of a border controlled drug, according to a report carried on news.com.au.

Commonwealth prosecutor Paul Huygens told the court that Ng had arrived on a flight from Hong Kong and was grilled by Customs officers after looking ‘nervous’.

He quickly admitted to having swallowed a large amount of heroin before boarding the flight.

He was arrested by Australian Federal Police and spent two days in hospital while he passed out all the packages, said the online report. (story)

Singapore pilot caught with child porn

7 video files were found on the personal computer of a Singapore Airlines (SIA) pilot who was fined A$12,000 for trying to bring child pornography into Australia, court documents showed on Wednesday.Some of the videos contained footage of rape, sexual violence and children engaged in sexual activity, the documents said.

Captain Ng Kok Yauw, 41, a Malaysian, piloted a Singapore Airlines flight last Saturday from Singapore to Adelaide, Australia, when customs officials searched his laptop and found video clips of child pornography, Adelaide court documents seen by Reuters said.

Ng, who appeared in court on Monday, pleaded guilty to charges of importing banned material and making a false statement to a customs officer.

He could not be reached for comment but Singapore Airlines, the world’s second-largest airline by market value, said the airline was conducting its own investigation. (story)

Teenager gets probabtion for burning uncle’s car

Teenager was placed on 24 months’ probation on Wednesday for burning his uncle’s car at a multi-storey carpark with his accomplice. Louis Hong Hsieh Shuen, 17, had pleaded guilty earlier to committing mischief by fire with Ho Ki Yeow, 17, at the Commonwealth Avenue carpark on Oct 24 last year.

The damage caused to Mr Ernest Tan’s car amounted to $40,500.

Ho has earlier been placed on 21 months’ probation for the offence.

A court heard that Hong bore grudges against Mr Tan’s wife over the inheritance left behind by his late father.

Once while he was cycling around Commonwealth Avenue, he spotted Mr Tan and his wife coming out of the multi-storey carpark in a car.

He then decided to take revenge on the victim’s wife by burning the car.

He roped in Ho. (story)

Former trader found guilty

High Court has found a former stock trader guilty of posting false, price sensitive information on the Internet about listed company Datacraft Asia.Able Wang Ziyi, 42, now faces a possible jail term of up to seven years and a fine of $250,000 when his sentence is passed in January.

The High Court overturned last year’s acquittal of Wang, who had posted a claim that Datacraft’s office was raided by police in 2004.

In his ruling on Thursday, Judge VK Rajah said stock traders should be responsible for what they post on the Internet because if the rumour turns out to be false or unsubstantiated, they could face prosecution. (story)

Temasek holdings disagree with ruling

Temasek Holdings said on Monday that it was not guilty of breaking competition laws or price-fixing in Indonesia and vowed to fight the ruling by the country’s anti-monopoly watchdog. ‘We are not guilty. The decision makes no sense. It ignores the facts,’ said Temasek’s executive director Simon Israel in a tersely-worded statement.

Indonesia’s Commission for the Supervision of Business Competition, known also as the KPPU, on Monday ruled that Temasek must sell one of its two indirect stakes in the country’s top two mobile phone operators within the next two years.

One Temasek subsidiary, SingTel, owns a 35 per cent stake in market leader Telkomsel while another unit, Singapore Technologies (ST) Telemedia, owns an effective 30 per cent interest in Indosat. (link)

Stalker masseuse loses appeal, still guilty

The High Court on Tuesday dismissed the appeal filed by Madam Song Jing, 41, who was fined $1,000 in a district court in September, as a result of her client Howe Jee Tian, 55, taking out police summonses against her for showing up uninvited at his Tuas office in August last year.

The married mother of one, a Singapore permanent resident from China, was found guilty of trespass. She was also convicted of a charge of mischief - for having pasted notices on his car windows in October last year.

When Mr Howe, a managing director of a contracting company, confronted her, she turned aggressive and grabbed his collar. (story)

Nokia’s first woman GM fined for taking bribes

Nokia’s first woman general manager was convicted on Tuesday of four charges of corruption and fined a total of $60,000.Kitty Fong Kit Sum, 47, now unemployed, was also ordered to pay a penalty of $8,864.48, the amount she took in one of the charges.

She was found guilty by District Judge Francis Tseng of corruptly accepting bribes in the form of help from convicted chief executive of Accord Customer Care Solutions Victor Tan to acquire three company’s shares in 2003 and 2004 in return for helping ACCS further its business interest with Nokia.

She profited between $4,415 and $14,783 from the ACCS, CAM and Excelpoint IPO shares.

She was also convicted of corruptly accepting $8,864.48 from Tan in February 2004. (story)

Bank employee jailed for fraud

She conned 17 victims of a whopping $1.5 million in eight years.

Between 1997 and 2005, Loh Lye Quen committed a total of 101 offences of deceiving her victims into investing between $1,000 and $225,000 in her purported family business dealing with property, construction and transportation in Malaysia.

The 53-year-old former bank employee pleaded guilty on Friday to 10 charges of cheating six victims of a total of $879,000 and was jailed a total of 61 months.

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