Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Groom abandons fiancée, jumps bail

By liyana | SingaporeScene – Tue, Jun 7, 2011

A man, who is held on remand and granted bail to get married, is now on the run from authorities after he failed to to turn up for his trial in a district court on Tuesday.

Irfan Ahmed Khan, 28, who was awaiting trial for drug trafficking, was granted the one-day bail of S$100,000 in the High Court last Friday. He claimed that he had to go to the Registry of Muslim Marriages on Tuesday morning with his fiancée,

The court heard that Khan, who was remanded at Changi Prison, left the facility with his elder brother at around 2pm on Monday and met his fiancée to buy some clothes for the wedding that afternoon.

However, at around 7pm, Khan entered a mosque in Yishun alone while his fiancée waited outside. But an hour later, he could not be found even after his brother searched the mosque premises.

District Judge John Ng issued a warrant of arrest for Khan and ordered his elder brother to show cause on 6 September why the bail should not be forfeited.

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Monday, June 6, 2011

Woman jailed for forging signatures on cheques

By Fann Sim | SingaporeScene – Mon, Jun 6, 2011

A 30-year-old woman has been jailed four years and 11 months for forging her former employer's signature on cheques to embezzle over S$1.3 million, reported Channel NewsAsia.

Samantha Chiam Hwee Theng, a former personal secretary, had committed the offences between February 2006 and February 2009 and pleaded guilty to nine of the 33 charges brought against her.

She had forged the signature of her ex-boss, Wu Chin Wei, 38, before using the money on shopping, vacations and household expenses.

According to her lawyer, Chiam suffered from a condition known as 'shopaholic disorder'. In mitigation, he revealed that she 'readily lost control' in the habit once she started shopping.

She is also said to have spent S$10,000 during her visits to Louis Vuitton and S$30,000 to Chanel on several occasions.

According to a report by Dr Lim Yun Chin, a psychiatrist from Raffles Hospital, Chiam's lawyer said that she had 'often experience guilt for embezzling money to fund her shopping compulsion'.

However, another psychiatrist who assessed Chiam disagreed. Dr Jerome Goh Hern Yee from the Institute of Mental Health stated that her offending was 'motivated more by social needs and her desire for her family's acceptance and respect', said Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong.

Both psychiatrists agreed that Chiam's offences involved pre-meditation and planning and were not committed on impulse and could not have been caused by her disorders.

Chiam has compensated S$100,000 to her former boss and surrendered goods amounting to S$400,000.

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