Low Siew Hwa Kenneth v Public Prosecutor

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Valerie Thean Pik Yuen
• Judgment Date: 27 November 2003
• Neutral Citation: [2003] SGDC 292
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Year: 2003
• Published date: 11 December 2003
• Plaintiff Counsel: Ms Jeanne Lee
• Defendant Counsel: Mr Mathialahan
• Citation: [2003] SGDC 292

1 The accused, Low Siew Hwa Kenneth ('Low'), pleaded guilty to the following charge:

You, Low Siew Hwa, Kenneth, are charged that you, on or about 21 July 1997, in Singapore, committed criminal breach of trust in that you, being at the material time a director of GETS Technologies Pte Ltd ("the Company"), a Company incorporated in Singapore, and in such capacity entrusted in the way of your business as an agent with dominion over the property belonging to the Company, namely, monies in a Company account with DBS Jurong Branch (no.0020181550), did dishonestly misappropriate a sum of $58,000 from the said bank account, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under s 409 of the Penal Code, Cap 224, 1985 Revised Ed.

2 Upon his admission to the charges and with his consent, 16 charges were taken into consideration for the purposes of sentencing. Six of these were charges under s 409 of the Penal Code. The remaining ten were charges under s 477A of the Penal Code, of abetting Kelly Lee to make false entries in payment vouchers wilfully and with intent to defraud.

Facts

3 At the material time, Low was a director of Romar Technologies Pte Ltd (‘RT’) and GETS Technologies Pte Ltd (‘GETS’). He was also the general manager of Romar Positioning Equipment Pte Ltd (‘RPE’). These companies were part of the Romar Group, whose main business was the design, manufacture, rental and sale of welding machinery. Low was an authorised signatory of the Romar Group’s bank accounts.

4 The facts relating to the charge proceeded with was as follows. On or about 27 July 1997, Kelly Lee, the accounts clerk of the Romar Group, prepared for Low a cash cheque for $58,000 drawn on the GETS account. This cheque had been pre-signed by Jonathan Lim, the managing director of the Romar Group. Low then co-signed the cheque for $58,000 and handed it to his accomplice, Marie Teo. Upon Low’s instruction, Marie Teo banked the cheque into the account of Serenity Woodcraft, of which she was the sole proprietor. Subsequently, Marie Teo withdrew the monies in cash and dealt with them as instructed by Low. For her services, Marie Teo received a commission of $1,000. A payment voucher, signed by Low, stated that the payment was for an invoice dated 11 June 1997 to a company called Eco-Tech Services (Eco-Tech) located in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. This transaction with Eco-Tech was, however, fictitious. Low signed and approved the payment voucher despite knowing that there were no transactions with Eco-Tech. Through Marie Teo and Serenity Woodcraft, Low thus dishonestly misappropriated $58,000 from the account of GETS, money entrusted to him as director and authorised signatory of GETS.

5 The charges under s 409 of the Penal Code which were taken into consideration were similar. They related to Low’s dishonest misappropriation of various sums of money between 1995 and 1998, by abuse of his position in RT, GETS and RPE. The charges under s 477A of the Penal Code were related to the various transactions: they concerned the false entries in the payment vouchers that Low used to cover his tracks.

6 The total amount involved was $297, 602.46.

Sentence

7 The offences in this case were part of a series of offences Low committed whilst director of RT and GETS and general manager of GPE, in the same period and by similar means. In earlier proceedings, Low was convicted of four counts under s 409 of the Penal Code and one...