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SINGAPORE: After her husband was taken to court for making illegal loans to borrowers, including a client of his, a real estate agent bribed his client into giving a false statement for her husband’s trial.
When she was arrested and charged with tampering with witnesses, the woman escaped in the middle of her trial and fled to Malaysia under the pretext of attending to work-related matters.
Sally Lai Guek Ling, 45, returned to Singapore about a year later and turned herself in. She was sentenced on Friday (October 30) to two years in prison and a fine of S $ 78,000. Since he cannot pay the fine, he will serve another three months in jail in arrears.
Lai pleaded guilty to four counts of instigating a witness to make a false statement for use in court against her husband, offering this witness a bribe, conspiring with her husband to conduct an unlicensed money loan business, and escape from trial.
Four other charges were considered.
The court heard that Lai was hired as a real estate agent for Salinah Ahmad and Sazali Ramli to help sell their apartment in 2012. The couple were facing financial difficulties and had spoken with Lai about their problems.
Later, Lai introduced Salinah to Lai’s husband, Kenny Tay Ann Siang, 46. Lai said her husband could give Salinah a loan, which would be paid off with the proceeds from the sale of her apartment, without indicating the interest rate.
The couple accepted the offer because they needed cash, and Salinah borrowed S $ 30,000 from Tay for a few months, even though Tay and Lai were not authorized to run a loan business.
In August 2012, Lai sold the Salinah apartment for around S $ 270,000, but claimed around S $ 108,000 of the sales proceeds as repayment of the loan, with an interest rate of around 260 percent.
In 2014, a senior manager of the Council of Real Estate Agencies filed a police report in connection with the sale of the Salinah apartment on suspicion of illegal money lending activities by Lai.
The police investigated Lai and her husband, and Tay was arrested and later charged with crimes of lending money without a license, including the loan granted to Salinah.
HER HUSBAND CLAIMED JUDGMENT
Tay said he would say that the trial and the trial dates were fixed, but his wife contacted Salinah in March 2015 to say she needed Salinah’s help for the trial. This was despite knowing that Salinah would be called as a witness at Tay’s trial.
Between June and July 2015, Lai promised Salinah S $ 3,000 if he agreed to provide false testimony at Tay’s trial, to exonerate him of the crimes, and Salinah agreed.
Lai prepared a false statement and Salinah signed it. However, her criminal acts were discovered and Lai was charged in April 2017 with bribing witnesses.
Lai claimed trial for his crimes and the trial began in June 2018. On the 13th day of his trial, he asked to leave Singapore to attend to work-related matters in Malaysia.
The judge granted this request, but Lai ran away and did not return to court for trial on December 19, 2018. An arrest warrant was issued against him and handed over to court in January of this year.
Deputy Prosecutor Chong Yonghui requested 27 months in prison and a fine of S $ 78,000, with a default of three months in prison. He stressed that although Lai pleaded guilty, this was after he ran away in the middle of his trial.
HAS BEEN IN DEPRESSION FOR ALMOST 20 YEARS: DEFENSE
Rajah & Tann’s defense attorney Thong Chee Kun asked for no more than 18 months in jail and said Lai’s mental condition was a central issue in his mitigation.
“He has suffered from depression for almost 20 years,” Thong said. “She was affected by her depression and her concern for her family.
“Based on the 20 years of major depression that he suffered, many of his actions were affected by the way he thought about the whole thing, by his desire to protect his family.”
He stressed that Lai finally “made the difficult decision to voluntarily surrender.”
“In the context of her mental condition, one can imagine the anguish and suffering she had to go through while on the run. It was not an easy period for her, especially since she was separated from her children at the time,” she said. Lawyer.
He said that while there was another lawyer representing Lai, Mr. Thong and his colleague had represented Lai during her trial and were “doing this at extremely low cost to help her complete the matter.”
He urged the court to impose a lenient sentence in absentia as Lai cannot pay any fines.
“He looks forward to being reunited with his children … and wants to start his life over as soon as possible. He has also instructed us to apologize to the court and the prosecution for all the trouble he has caused,” Thong said. .
District Judge John Ng said: “Mrs. Lai, I think the moment you stopped running, the moment you came back, you already started … on the road to get your life back.”
He said he should be able to put this behind him within a year, as his incarceration will be retroactive to the date of his pretrial detention in January.
“You should be able to put this behind you and as you wish, take care of your children and focus on them. So please make your life in order after that,” the judge said.
Lai’s husband’s trial is still pending.
