Pang Siew Fum & another v Public Prosecutor

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Chao Hick Tin JA
• Judgment Date: 22 February 2011
• Neutral Citation: [2011] SGCA 5
• Court: Court of Appeal (Singapore)
• Docket Number: Criminal Appeal 4 of 2010
• Year: 2011
• Published date: 28 February 2011
• Hearing Date: 21 October 2010
• Plaintiff Counsel: Mr Irving Choh and Ms Lim Bee Li (M/S Khattarwong)
• Subject Matter: Criminal law
• Citation: [2011] SGCA 5

Chao Hick Tin JA (delivering the grounds of decision of the court): Introduction

The 1st Appellant, Mdm Pang Siew Fum (“Pang”), a 56-year old Malaysian, and the 2nd Appellant, Mr Cheong Chun Yin (“Cheong”), a 27-year old Malaysian, were both convicted of trafficking in not less than 2,726 grams of diamorphine (“heroin”), and sentenced to death by Choo Han Teck J (“the Judge”) in Public Prosecutor v Pang Siew Fum and another [2010] SGHC 40 (“the Judgment”). Both of them appealed against their convictions and sentences. We heard and dismissed the appeals on 21 October 2010. We now give our reasons.

Pang initially faced another charge of trafficking in not less than 5,054 grams of diamorphine, but the prosecution only proceeded with the first charge at the trial.

The Facts

On 16 June 2008, two teams of Central Narcotics Bureau (“CNB”) officers were tasked to conduct surveillance on Pang and Cheong respectively. The first team kept Pang under surveillance at her flat at Block 98, Lorong 1 Toa Payoh #09-309, Singapore 390098 (“the flat”). She drove a Malaysian-registered silver Mitsubishi Grandis car with registration number JHY 6668 (“the car”), which was owned by her brother-in-law.

The second team of CNB officers stationed themselves at Changi Airport Terminal 2 to await the arrival of Cheong from Yangon, Myanmar, on board Silkair flight MI 511.

At 7 pm on the same day, the CNB officers trailed Pang as she drove from the carpark of her block of flats at Toa Payoh to Changi Airport. After she parked her car at Carpark 2A at Terminal 2, she proceeded to the Arrival Hall of Terminal 2 (“Arrival Hall”) and waited for Cheong outside the arrival gates near conveyor belt 36.

At 8.10 pm Cheong collected a black trolley bag (“A1”) from the conveyor belt and cleared Customs without being required to put A1 through the baggage scanner. Cheong met up with Pang at the Arrival Hall. They had a brief conversation, after which they walked towards Carpark 2A together. All this while, Cheong was pulling A1.

At 8.15pm, Cheong and Pang reached the vehicle pick-up point of Carpark 2A. Cheong handed A1 to Pang and headed back to the Arrival Hall where he made several calls on his mobile phone. Pang walked to her car with A1, loaded the bag into the boot and drove off from the airport.

Cheong left the airport in a taxi. Upon alighting at Arab Street at about 8.45pm, he was promptly arrested by the CNB officers who had been trailing him.

In the meantime, the other group of CNB officers trailed Pang from Changi Airport as she travelled along the East Coast Parkway, Pan Island Expressway and finally Lorong 6 Toa Payoh, where she drove around in circles, apparently waiting for a call. At 8.50 pm, the CNB officers intercepted Pang at a traffic light junction and arrested her. A1 was found in the boot of the car. The CNB officers arrested Pang and brought her together with A1 to the carpark of Blk 98 Lor 1 Toa Payoh, where they met with another party of CNB officers who had arrested her husband, Chow Yoke Jee (“Chow”). At 9.40 pm, the CNB officers brought both Pang and Chow, together with A1, to the flat.

In the flat, the CNB officers found two other black trolley luggage bags in the utility room behind the kitchen. These two bags were similar to A1. One bag, which was on a chair in the room, had a luggage tag bearing the name “Ong/Seng Hua”, and a serial number “SQ519036” (“B1”). The other bag, which was on the floor, bore the name “Lew/Wai Loon”, and a serial number “SQ603581” (“C1”).

At 10.25 pm, Cheong was escorted to Pang’s flat by another group of CNB officers led by Senior Station Inspector Sea Hoon Cheng.

At 10.30 pm, Staff Sergeant Karathigayan and Sergeant Muhd Fardlie (“Sgt Fardlie”) conducted a search of A1 in the presence of Pang, Chow and Cheong. After the base had been prised open, a layer of cardboard was found beneath the base. Underneath the cardboard was a large packet secured with brown adhesive tape. Sgt Fardlie made a slight incision at the centre of the packet, and observed that it contained a white powdery substance. It is noteworthy that neither Pang, nor Chow, nor Cheong showed any reaction upon seeing the white powdery substance.

At 11.40 pm, the Investigating Officer for this case, Assistant Superintendent Gary Chan Gin Choong (“ASP Gary”), arrived at the flat with his Special Investigation Team (“SIT”).

Some 20 minutes later, at 12.01 am on 17 June 2008, officers from the Forensic Management Branch arrived at the flat. At 12.35 am, ASP Gary took over the 3 luggage bags in the flat, which were at all times within view of Pang, Chow and Cheong. The SIT officers searched the three luggage bags. In A1, they found an orange comb, a shaver, an air ticket, a stack of papers, some clothing and most important of all, a modified base, beneath which was stored a large packet secured with brown adhesive tape, and which contained a white powdery substance.

As for B1, the SIT officers also found a modified base, beneath which was stored a large packet secured with brown adhesive tape. As in the case of A1, this packet also contained a white powdery substance.

Upon checking C1, the SIT officers found an orange comb, a small green purse and, as in the case of the other two bags, a modified base, beneath which was stored a large packet secured with brown adhesive tape, and which contained a white powdery substance.

Later, at 2.45am, ASP Gary conducted a search of the car. He found and seized from the car a silver Nokia handphone, Cheong’s electronic ticket passenger itinerary receipt and an electronic ticket passenger itinerary receipt with the name “So/Chin Hong”, and with a photograph stapled onto it.

At 3.05 am, Pang, Chow and Cheong were escorted to the SIT office’s “Exhibit Management Room”. At 3.10 am, the drug packets from A1, B1 and C1 were weighed in their presence. The drug packet in A1 was found to contain 2,726 grams of diamorphine while those in B1 and C1 were found to contain 2,358 grams and 2,696 grams of diamorphine respectively.

Pang’s version of events

Pang’s involvement with the drugs in question and the events leading up to her arrest were recounted in her statement recorded pursuant to s 121 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cap 68, 1985 Rev Ed) (“CPC”) (“s 121 statement”). The admissibility of this statement was not challenged.

Pang said that she occupied the flat, but she lived principally in Malaysia, where she helped in the business of her sister, a pork seller. Apart from that, she was also involved in illegal lottery betting as well as being a bookie for horse racing. To earn extra money, she kept some bets which she did not put through to the main bookie. She chalked up heavy losses from her own bets and the bets which she did not put through to the main bookie. As a result, she started to borrow money from one “Teng Mor”, a male Chinese in his mid 20’s who had placed bets with her since the mid-1990s. According to Pang, she started borrowing money from Teng Mor in 1998 and by 2008 she owed him approximately S$200,000.

Pang asserted that in February 2008, Teng Mor asked her how she was going to repay him the S$200,000. In response, she pleaded for more time to pay as well as for the stoppage of interest charges on the debt. Teng Mor replied that he would have to consult his partners. A week later, Teng Mor told Pang that he would stop charging her interest on the debt and even offered her a job which involved receiving his friends at Changi airport and bringing them to wherever they wanted to go. Teng Mor told Pang that she would be paid S$5,000 per trip. Pang said that, at the time, she declined the offer as she was not free.

In March 2008, Teng Mor renewed his offer of the said job to Pang. He told her that his friend would be coming from Myanmar. Pang asked Teng Mor why his friend could not go to the hotel on his own and Teng Mor replied that “there were a lot of precious things in the luggage and it was worth a lot of money”. Pang explained:

I then asked him if it is illegal, he told me that he is running away from tax. I asked him what is in the bag. He told me that there are jade, blue sapphire, red ruby, diamonds and also Buddha pendants in the luggage. He told me that they are worth a lot of money and it is illegal to bring [them] out from Myanmar... He told me that he already known me for ten years and he had never got me into trouble and had been helping me... I find that it is nothing wrong and I think he is really helping me.

Pang said that she informed Teng Mor that she would think about the offer but nevertheless failed to contact him about it thereafter.

In May 2008, Teng Mor called Pang again and asked her to receive a friend (“the old lady”) and keep the luggage bag that the old lady would pass to her. Pang claimed that she decided to meet the old lady because she felt bad as Teng Mor had repeatedly reminded her that she owed him a favour for not pressing her to return the money owed to him. To enable her to identify the old lady, Teng Mor arranged for Pang to go to Merlin Tower in Johor Bahru, Malaysia (“Merlin Tower”), to meet a Malay man (“the Malay man”), who handed to her a photograph of the old lady as well as details of the old lady’s flight.

On 26 May 2008, Pang borrowed a car from her brother-in-law, drove to the airport and met the old lady at around 3pm. In her s 121 statement, she initially said that after meeting the old lady at the Arrival Hall, they both went to McDonald’s for a meal and then proceeded to the nearby carpark, where the old lady told Pang that she wished to retrieve her clothing from the luggage bag. Pang said that she noticed that apart from the clothing, which was packed in a plastic bag, the luggage bag was empty. She claimed that she felt the bottom of the bag but could not feel “anything unusual”. The old lady then told her that “[Teng Mor] had already...