Public Prosecutor v Er Sok Tin

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Soh Tze Bian
• Judgment Date: 20 January 2009
• Neutral Citation: [2009] SGDC 22
• Published date: 05 February 2009
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Plaintiff Counsel: Deputy Public Prosecutor Luke Tang
• Defendant Counsel: A.P, Thirumurthy (Murthy & Co)

20 January 2009

District Judge Soh Tze Bian:

The Charges and Sentence

1. This is an appeal against sentence filed by the accused on 16 January 2009. The accused, female aged 49 years, had on 12 December 2008 pleaded guilty before me to the following 2 charges:

(i) In DAC 25802/2008, the accused had, sometime between March 2007 and November 2007, in Singapore, abetted by engaging in a conspiracy with one Tan Choon, one Leong Chee Liong and others unknown, to distribute obscene films, and in pursuance of that conspiracy and in order to the doing of that thing, an act took place on 23rd November 2007, at about 5.30pm, at No. 865 Mountbatten Road #02-81G, Katong Shopping Centre, Singapore, to wit, the said Leong Chee Liong was in possession of a total of Seven Hundred And Fourteen (714) films which were obscene for the purpose of distribution. This was an offence punishable under Section 29(3) of the Films Act (Cap 107) read with Section 109 of the Penal Code (Cap 224) with a fine of not less than $2,000 for each such film distributed (but not to exceed in the aggregate $80,000) or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both.

(ii) In DAC 25803/2008, the accused had, sometime between March 2007 and November 2007, in Singapore, abetted by engaging in a conspiracy with one Tan Choon, one Leong Chee Liong and others unknown, to distribute video compact disc inlays containing obscene pictures, and in pursuance of that conspiracy and in order to the doing of that thing, an act took place on 23rd November 2007, at about 5.30pm, at No. 865 Mountbatten Road #02-81G, Katong Shopping Centre, Singapore, to wit, the said Leong Chee Liong was in possession of a total of Seven Hundred And Thirteen (713) video compact disc inlays containing obscene pictures for the purpose of distribution. This was an offence punishable under Section 292(a) of the Penal Code (Cap 224) read with Section 109 of the Penal Code (Cap 224) with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 3 months, or with fine, or with both.

2. For the purpose of sentencing, the accused also admitted to the following 2 charges to be taken into consideration:

(i) In DAC 25804/2008, the accused had, sometime between March 2007 and November 2007, in Singapore, abetted by engaging in a conspiracy with one Tan Choon, one Leong Chee Liong and others unknown, to distribute films without a valid certificate, and in pursuance of that conspiracy and in order to the doing of that thing, an act took place on 23rd November 2007, at about 5.30pm, at No. 865 Mountbatten Road #02-81G, Katong Shopping & Centre, Singapore, to wit, the said Leong Chee Liong was in possession of a total of Six Hundred And Nine (609) films without a valid certificate for the purpose of distribution. This was an offence punishable under Section 21(1)(b) of the Films Act (Cap 107) read with Section 109 of the Penal Code (Cap 224) and Section 21(1)(ii) of the Films Act (Cap 107) with a fine of not less than $500 for each such film distributed (but not to exceed in the aggregate $40,000) or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.

(ii) In DAC 25805/2008, the accused had, sometime between March 2007 and November 2007, in Singapore, abetted by engaging in a conspiracy with one Tan Choon, one Leong Chee Liong and others unknown, to carry on a business of distributing films without a valid licence, and in pursuance of that conspiracy and in order to the doing of that thing, an act took place on 23rd November 2007, at about 5.30pm, at No. 865 Mountbatten Road #02-81G, Katong Shopping Centre, Singapore, to wit, the said Leong Chee Liong was carrying on a business of distributing films without a valid licence. This was an offence punishable under Section 6(1)(a) of the Films Act (Cap 107) read with Section 109 of the Penal Code (Cap 224) with a fine of not less than $10,000 but not more than $40,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both..

3. On 9 January 2009, I sentenced the accused to 12 months’ imprisonment for DAC 25802/2008 and one month’s imprisonment for DAC 25803/2008 and ordered both sentences to run concurrently. On her application and with no objection from the Deputy Public Prosecutor but on condition that the current bail amount be increased from $15,000 to $20,000, I granted the accused bail of $20,000 with one surety and allowed her to serve the 12 months’ imprisonment with effect from 2 February 2009. On 16 January 2009, her defence counsel filed a notice of appeal against sentence. At the time of writing my Grounds of Decision, the accused was on bail and has not commenced serving her sentence.

Statement of Facts

4. The statement of facts, admitted by the accused without qualification, read as follows:

“A COMPLAINANT

1 The complainant is Acting Inspector Andy Chua, attached to the Intellectual Property Rights Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Singapore.

B ACCUSED

2 The accused is Er Sok Tin, female 49 years old.

C ACCOMPLICES/WITNESSES

3 The accomplices are Leong Chee Liong (B1), male 39 and Tan Choon (B2), male 55 years old. The police witness is Quek Chin Keong, Jason (A1). (B1) and (B2) have since been sentenced.

D ARREST

4 On 23 November 2007 at or about 1730 hours, Acting Inspector Andy Chua of the CID (the complainant) and his partner conducted observation on 3 male subjects following their visit to unit #02-81G (the unit) at Katong Shopping Centre (KSC), at no. 865 Mountbatten Road. The officers were acting on information received that the said unit was dealing in pirated DVDs which infringed the provisions of the Copyright Act (Cap 63) as well as the Films Act (Cap 107).

5 After observing the 3 male subjects and having had reasonable belief that they were committing offences under the Films Act and/or the Copyright Act, the officers conducted a check on them. One of the subjects, Quek Chin Keong Jason (Al), was found to be in the possession of 7 jackets of pirated movie DVDs. (Al) is a regular visitor and customer of the unit. Upon questioning, (Al) revealed that he had bought the pirated DVDs from the said unit from an accomplice of the accused, known to him as "Leong", whose full identity was later established to be (Bl) Leong Chee Liong ("Leong"). (Al) then led officers to the unit to conduct a raid.

6 The door to the said unit was then closed. There was a pinhole camera fixed to the side of the door to capture the view of the corridor in front of the unit. Upon reaching the unit, the officers asked (Al) to stand in front of the pinhole camera as their previous surveillance on the unit revealed that (Bl) would not open the door of the unit other than for his regular customers. Once (Bl) opened the unit's door, the officers moved into the unit. Upon entry, the officers noted many pirated movie DVDs displayed in many plastic sleeves hung from metal racks within the store. (B1) was arrested on suspicion of having contravened the Copyright Act. In the presence of (B1), the following items were seized for investigations:

(a) 713 jackets of movie VCDs/DVDs believed to be obscene;

(b) 406 jackets of English movie DVDs;

(c) 177 jackets of Non-English movie DVDs;

(d) One TV (security TV as well as used to view the DVDs);

(e) One Pinhole Camera (the security camera fixed to the side of the door);

(f) One DVD player (used to test the DVDs);

(g) One hand-written note book with two pieces of paper (containing nicknames of customers and their contact numbers and an account of the existing stock of pirated movie DVDs then in the unit).

7 The exhibits were later sent to the Board of Film Censors (BFC), Media Development Authority for examination. Of the exhibits sent for examination, 1323 discs (1289 DVDs and 34 VCDs) sent were found to have contravened the Films Act. Of the 1289 DVDs, 680 contained obscene films whilst 609 contained un-certificated films. All of the 34 VCDs contained obscene films. (see BFC Report attached to the Statement of Facts).

E INVESTIGATIONS

8 Investigations revealed that sometime in 2003, (Bl) was recruited by a friend to man the covert shop located at #02-81G of Katong Shopping Centre. (Bl) had been manning the shop since 2004. The entrance of the shop was monitored by CCTV and (B1) would only open the door to the shop for regular customers or people he recognizes.

9 Investigations also showed that since mid-2006, (B1) had been getting his supply of pirated movie DVDs ('the supplies') from (B2) Tan Choon who is known to him as “Sunny”.

ROLE OF THE ACCUSED

10 The accused Er Sok Tin who was arrested together with (B2) on 27th November 2007 at his residence revealed that she had been assisting (B2) Tan Choon since March 2007 in delivering supplies to (B1) at Katong Shopping Centre. She also assisted in collecting payment for the delivery of the DVDs.

11 Investigations also revealed that the accused was aware of what she was delivering, i.e. pirated and pornographic movies. She was also able to vividly describe the location of the covert store at Katong Shopping Centre and also knows the operator as one "Leong" (recorder note refers to Leong Chee Liong).

FACTS RELATING TO 1" CHARGE

12 Sometime between March 2007 and November 2007, the accused, did abet by engaging with Leong Chee Liong, Tan Choon and others unknown, in a conspiracy to distribute obscene films, and in pursuance of that conspiracy, an act took place on 23rd day of November 2007, at about 5.30pm, at No.865 Mountbatten Road #02-81G, Katong Shopping Centre, Singapore, where 714 obscene films contained in the form of 680 DVDs and 34 VCDs were in the possession of B1 for the purposes of distribution. The accused had thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 29(3) of the Films Act, Chapter 107 read with Section 109 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.

13 The seized exhibits were examined by Mr Ahmad Kejoo of the BFC, Media Development Authority, who stated the films were obscene.

FACTS RELATING TO 2nd...