Koo Kah Yee v Public Prosecutor

JurisdictionSingapore
JudgeSundaresh Menon CJ
Judgment Date27 November 2020
Neutral Citation[2020] SGHC 261
Year2020
Published date02 December 2020
Docket NumberMagistrate’s Appeal No 9081 of 2020
Hearing Date01 October 2020
Plaintiff CounselRobert Leslie Gregory (L G Robert) and Chow Weng Weng (Chow Ng Partnership)
Defendant CounselWong Woon Kwong and Lim Shin Hui (Attorney-General's Chambers)
CourtHigh Court (Singapore)
Citation[2020] SGHC 261
Subject MatterBenchmark Sentences,Statutory Offences,Criminal Procedure and Sentencing,Sentencing,Appeals,Criminal Law,Remote Gambling Act
Sundaresh Menon CJ: Introduction

The appellant, Koo Kah Yee, is a Malaysian national. She pleaded guilty to one charge under s 11(1) of the Remote Gambling Act (No 34 of 2014) (“RGA”) read with s 109 of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed) (“Penal Code”) for abetting, by intentionally aiding in, the provision of Singapore-based remote gambling services. Three other related charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

The District Judge sentenced the appellant to 12 months’ imprisonment on the proceeded charge: see Public Prosecutor v Koo Kah Yee [2020] SGDC 136 (“the GD”). The appellant appealed against the sentence on the ground that it was manifestly excessive.

After considering the appellant’s submissions, I dismissed the appeal. For the reasons set out below, I was satisfied that the sentence was wholly appropriate in the circumstances, and in fact, quite lenient. In this judgment, I also take the opportunity to set out a sentencing framework for offences under s 11(1) of the RGA.

Facts

The facts are set out in the Statement of Facts (“SOF”), which the appellant admitted to without qualification. The appellant worked as an administrative staff member of an organisation that she came to learn was operating as a remote gambling syndicate. The syndicate comprised, amongst others, the following personnel: Three leaders, namely, Eric Seet, Steven Seet and Philip Seet (collectively, “the Seet brothers”). They operated two remote gambling four-digit (“4D”) websites: www.asure6.net (“the asure6 website”) and www.888pool.net (“the 888pool website”). One chief runner, who on instructions from the Seet brothers, would collect and distribute monies for illegal gambling operations. Three administrative staff, namely, the appellant, Sunny Lai Yen San (“Sunny Lai”) and a third person.

The syndicate had three main clusters, each comprising agents who collected bets and shareholders who shared in the profits and losses flowing from the asure6 and 888pool websites.

The operations of the asure6 and 888pool websites were centrally managed and controlled from Singapore. Illegal 4D bets placed by agents and punters were keyed into these websites. Public lotteries were then conducted using remote communications.

Sometime in early 2012, the appellant, who was then in Malaysia, received a call from Steven Seet, one of the syndicate leaders. The two had become acquainted when the appellant worked for Steven Seet as a secretary in a massage parlour in Singapore back in 2009. Steven Seet offered the appellant a job in Singapore as an accounts assistant with an entity called Erictex Trading (“Erictex”). The appellant was informed by Steven Seet that Erictex was an IT company supporting licensed gambling in Philippines and she accepted the job offer.

In February 2012, the appellant commenced work at Erictex. Its premises were located at Ubi Road. There, she worked together with some IT programming workers, who assisted in troubleshooting the asure6 and 888pool websites as well as a bookkeeping website called www.ES123.net (“the ES123 website”). Shortly thereafter, the appellant came to learn that Erictex was dealing with illegal 4D and horse betting activities. Specifically, she learnt that asure6 and 888pool were illegal 4D betting websites operated by Eric Seet and Steven Seet. She also learnt that the ES123 website was a bookkeeping platform maintained by the syndicate to track the syndicate’s cash flow and expenses for illegal 4D bets.

Further, the appellant learnt that apart from Erictex, two other companies, namely SB IT Developer (“SB IT”) and Best Laser Music House, had also been established by Eric Seet and Steven Seet. These two companies, along with Erictex, were companies that had no real legitimate business activities and together, they shared three office units at Ubi Road. The appellant knew that these three shell companies had been established only for the purpose of carrying out illegal 4D and horse betting activities through the asure6 and 888pool websites. Whilst the appellant was, strictly speaking, employed by Erictex, she managed and attended to administrative matters for all three shell companies.

The appellant’s administrative work consisted of the following: preparing the payroll for all employees of Erictex and SB IT by obtaining Steven Seet’s approval of the list of employees and the amounts payable to them. Eric Seet or Steven Seet would access the Internet banking token, allowing the appellant to log in to Erictex’s bank account and then pay the employee salaries; keying in the accounts of the various companies onto the ES123 website as and when instructed by Steven Seet to do so; updating illegal betting records (such as payments received from punters) on occasion onto the ES123 website based on figures gathered from the 888pool website; issuing various cheque payments for, among other things, computer servers purchased for gambling activities, utilities, rental and renovation of the Ubi Road office premises; filling up, on the instructions of Eric Seet, Erictex’s income tax declaration to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore for 2013 and 2014, using the figures that he dictated to her; managing GIRO deductions in respect of the Central Provident Fund (“CPF”) contributions and foreign worker levies for other employees of Erictex; assisting with applications to the Ministry of Manpower for work permits for employees; and managing payments of petty cash to employees for meals or stationery.

As the appellant admitted in the SOF, her role as an administrative assistant was crucial to the operation of the syndicate’s remote gambling activities. In addition to her work in the syndicate as outlined above, the appellant also assisted with the administrative matters of other legitimate businesses set up by Eric Seet and Steven Seet, specifically, a café, a coffee shop and a bakery.

Notably, the appellant also recruited another administrative staff, one Sunny Lai, into the syndicate. Sometime in 2013, the appellant learnt that Steven Seet was looking for someone to help key in reports relating to illegal 4D activities. The appellant, despite knowing that the syndicate was engaged in illegal activities, asked Sunny Lai if she would be interested to join Steven Seet’s operation and told her that her job would involve keying in data related to illegal gambling activities. Sunny Lai agreed to take the job and started working for the syndicate from July 2013 to the end of October 2016.

In November 2016, after a prolonged period of probes by the police, various members of the syndicate were arrested. The appellant was arrested on 2 May 2017 at the Woodlands Checkpoint. A total of 49 persons were arrested in connection with the syndicate’s activities. Based on the betting records seized, the total betting revenue received by the asure6 website alone (for the period 22 November 2015 to 14 August 2016) was $18,207,212.62. This sum did not reflect the total amount of all the betting revenue received because some of the relevant records were not successfully retrieved.

The appellant was charged with abetting, by intentionally aiding, Steven Seet and Eric Seet in the provision of Singapore-based remote gambling services through the asure6 and 888pool websites, an offence under s 11(1) of the RGA read with s 109 of the Penal Code as follows:

You … are charged that you, from 2 February 2015 to 27 November 2016 (both dates inclusive), in Singapore, did abet by intentionally aiding [Steven Seet] and [Eric Seet] in the provision of Singapore-based remote gambling services through the [asure6 and 888pool websites], to wit, you aided [Steven Seet] and [Eric Seet] by performing duties of an administrative staff/accounts assistant for [Steven Seet] and [Eric Seet], which involved the performing of general administrative matters including that of issuing of cheques for rental of office units, electricity bills and internet usage, paying workers’ salaries, managing workers’ payrolls, applying of permits, managing workers’ CPF contributions, payout of petty cash to workers on claims, and helping workers to file their income taxes, which acts were crucial to the operation of the said websites by [Steven Seet] and [Eric Seet] and committed knowing that [Eric Seet] and [Steven Seet] were providing Singapore-based remote gambling services through [the asure6 and 888pool websites] during this period, and with intent to aid such purpose, offences of providing Singapore-based remote gambling services were committed by [Steven Seet] and [Eric Seet] in consequence of your abetment, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 11(1) of the [RGA] read with Section 109 of the Penal Code …

As the Prosecution clarified before the District Judge, even though the appellant had started working for the syndicate in February 2012, the charge cited 2 February 2015 as the commencement date of the offence because that was when the RGA entered into force. Hence, for the purposes of the proceeded charge, the offending period of the appellant was approximately 22 months.

Three other charges were taken into consideration for the purposes of sentencing the appellant: one charge under s 5(1) of the Organised Crime Act 2015 (No 26 of 2015) (“OCA”) for being a member of what the appellant knew to be a locally-linked organised criminal group; one charge under s 12(1)(b) of the OCA for engaging in conduct which the appellant knew would facilitate commission of an offence under s 11(1) of the RGA, in furtherance of the illegal purpose of an organised criminal group; and one charge under s 5(a) of the Common Gaming Houses Act (Cap 49, 1985 Rev Ed) (“CGHA”) for assisting in the carrying on of public lotteries.

Decision below

The District Judge sentenced the appellant to 12 months’ imprisonment. He noted that the predominant sentencing...

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