Public Prosecutor v Iskandar bin Rahmat

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Tay Yong Kwang J
• Judgment Date: 04 December 2015
• Neutral Citation: [2015] SGHC 310
• Court: High Court (Singapore)
• Docket Number: Criminal Case No 50 of 2015
• Published date: 23 February 2017
• Year: 2015
• Hearing Date: 26 October 2015,30 October 2015,27 October 2015,11 November 2015,28 October 2015,23 November 2015,20 October 2015,09 November 2015,22 October 2015
• Plaintiff Counsel: Lau Wing Yum, Prem Raj s/o Prabakaran, Mansoor Amir and Sia Jiazheng (Attorney-General's Chambers)
• Defendant Counsel: Shashi Nathan, Tania Chin, Jeremy Pereira (KhattarWong LLP), Ferlin Jayatissa, Sudha Nair (LexCompass LLC) and Rajan Supramaniam (Hilborne & Co)
• Subject Matter: Criminal Law,Offences,Murder
• Citation: [2015] SGHC 310

Tay Yong Kwang J:

The accused, Iskandar bin Rahmat, was born on 3 February 1979. He claimed trial to two capital charges of murder punishable under s 302 of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed) (“the Penal Code”):

CHARGE

That you, Iskandar Bin Rahmat,

on 10 July 2013 (Wednesday), sometime after approximately 3.28 pm at No. 14J Hillside Drive in Singapore, did commit murder of one Tan Boon Sin, aged 67 years old, to wit, by inflicting multiple wounds with a knife to his face, neck, and chest with the intention of causing his death, and you have thereby committed an offence under s 300(a) punishable under Section 302(1) of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed).

2nd CHARGE

That you, Iskandar Bin Rahmat,

on 10 July 2013 (Wednesday), sometime after approximately 3.33 pm at No. 14J Hillside Drive in Singapore, did commit murder of one Tan Chee Heong, aged 42 years old, to wit, by inflicting multiple wounds with a knife to his face, scalp, and neck, with the intention of causing his death, and you have thereby committed an offence under s 300(a) punishable under Section 302(1) of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed).

The prosecution had a total of 102 witnesses. After discussions at a pre-trial conference with me one day before the trial, it was agreed that most of the prosecution’s witnesses were not required for cross-examination. Accordingly, their conditioned statements were admitted by consent without the need for their attendance in court. Subsequently the prosecution also decided not to call one witness originally on its list (Dr Henry C Lee). Eventually, only 17 witnesses were required to testify for the prosecution in court. For the defence, only the accused gave evidence.

The prosecution’s case

The prosecution proceeded under s 300(a) of the Penal Code for both charges. It alleged that the accused murdered Mr Tan Boon Sin (“D1”) and his son, Mr Tan Chee Heong (“D2”) in 14J Hillside Drive (“D1’s house”) with the intention of causing their deaths. The investigation officer, Deputy Superintendent Daniel Wong, recorded various statements from the accused. The accused’s account of the events leading up to his arrival in D1’s house and the events that happened after his departure from D1’s house was largely not in dispute and formed part of the prosecution’s case. The main contention was over the events that took place in D1’s house over a period of about 30 minutes.

The accused joined the Singapore Police Force in March 1999 as a corporal. After secondary school, he enrolled in a polytechnic but left in his second year. He enlisted for national service in the police force and then joined it as a regular officer. He served with the Bedok Police Division and in 2007 successfully applied to become an investigation officer. The police force sponsored his diploma studies in management and police studies. He was an investigation officer until January 2013 and performed well in his work. At the time of the incidents stated in the charges, he was a senior staff sergeant.

After a short marriage, the accused divorced in early 2005. He started to experience financial difficulties from the liabilities incurred during the marriage. The financial problems stemmed from three loans that he had taken from Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (“the bank”): a housing loan, a renovation loan and a car loan. The flat and the car were eventually sold to pay off part of the debts owing by him. The bank took into account certain part-payments after he made enquiries but claimed that he still owed the bank $61,599.66 as at June 2012.

On 4 October 2012, the bank filed a bankruptcy application which was served on the accused at his workplace on 25 October 2012. Court hearings followed. On 3 July 2013, he wrote to the bank’s lawyer, offering an out-of-court settlement with a full payment of $50,000. The bank accepted the offer but required payment by 4 July 2013, the date of the next bankruptcy hearing, failing which it would proceed with the bankruptcy application. The accused had less than $400 when he made his offer. He did not attend the 4 July hearing. However, he called the bank’s lawyer, who adjourned the hearing until 11 July 2013 for the accused to pay the bank the agreed amount of $50,000 by that date. The accused had to pay the bank before the next court hearing on 11 July 2013 if he wanted to avoid bankruptcy. On 10 July 2013 (the day of the incidents in the charges), the bank’s lawyer sent a payment reminder to the accused. There was no response and no payment. Accordingly, a bankruptcy order against the accused was made on 11 July 2013.

Before 11 July 2013, besides imminent bankruptcy, the accused’s unsecured debts amounting to more than three times his gross monthly income meant that he was “financially embarrassed”. That caused him to be subject to disciplinary action which meant possible dismissal from the police force. He was transferred from the investigation branch to the divisional operations room on 2 January 2013 as a result of internal investigations that started after a letter from the Insolvency and Public Trustee’s Office was sent to his office in October 2012. He was also barred from carrying firearms.

In April 2013, the accused was charged with financial embarrassment by the Police Disciplinary Board (“PDB”). The disciplinary officer, Borhan bin Said (“Borhan”), explained to the accused the consequences of a finding of guilt which included dismissal or compulsory retirement. The disciplinary hearing was then rescheduled to 3 July 2013. At that hearing, the accused said he would obtain money from his cousin to repay the debts. Borhan, who adjourned the matter to 30 July 2013, said he might have mentioned to the accused that discharging his debts could mitigate the consequences of being found guilty. However, he did not threaten the accused about this. In truth, the accused did not have a cousin.

D1 was the owner of a motorcar workshop. The accused knew about D1 because on 8 and 20 November 2012, D1 lodged reports with the Bedok Police Division, stating that cash amounting to $45,000 and gold coins were missing from his safe deposit box at Certis CISCO. The accused, who was initially assigned as the duty investigation officer for the case, learnt that a substantial sum remained inside the safe deposit box. At that time, he was already in financial difficulties. He brought home a copy of the police report which had D1’s contact details.

The accused said he devised the plan to rob D1 on 8 July 2013 as the deadline for repayment drew near. He intended to call D1 and introduce himself as a Police Intelligence Department (“PID”) officer. He would inform D1 that he had received information that his safe deposit box would be “hit” and he wanted to put a CCTV camera inside the box to catch the culprit. He would tell D1 to empty the box of its contents and to keep the operation a secret because the police did not know who was stealing from the deposit boxes.

On 10 July 2013, the accused executed his plan. He used a dummy CCTV camera which was in his home in Kim Keat. He removed its dome-shaped casing so that the lens and base could fit into a box in which he had cut a small hole. He positioned the lens to point towards the hole. He put the fake camera, his security pass, his warrant card, the copy of D1’s police report, an anti-snoring wristlet and the cut-off part of an ear piece into a paper bag. He wore the clothes that he wore while he was an investigation officer. He also wore the wristlet and the ear piece to make it look like he had a “walkie talkie”. To look professional, he also rented a car – a Nissan Sunny – from a car rental company in Sin Ming Drive for two days. He rode his scooter there to collect the car. He arrived around noon and checked out the car at about 12.20pm. He then left the scooter behind and drove to a public payphone at 226G Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1.

At about 1pm, the accused called D1 from the payphone. Telephone records showed that two conversations took place. One was at about 1pm for about eight minutes and the other at about 1.10pm for about 40 seconds. They spoke in Malay as D1 was not conversant in English. The accused introduced himself as a PID officer and said that he had information that D1’s safe deposit box would be “hit”. D1 agreed to put the dummy CCTV camera in the safe deposit box as requested. The accused wanted to meet D1 along Jalan Afifi in Paya Lebar, where Certis CISCO was located. However, D1 said the road was too narrow for him to park his car there and suggested that they meet at a Shell petrol station at Jalan Afifi at 2pm. The accused told D1 that he would be driving a car with the number, 2995. He did not give the prefix or suffix of the registration number so as to minimise the possibility of being traced.

The accused arrived at the petrol station first and went to scout around the vicinity for a place where he could park his rented car. When he returned to the petrol station, D1 had arrived in his silver Toyota Camry (which also had “14J” as part of its registration number, the same number and alphabet as D1’s house address). He handed D1 the box with the dummy camera and asked D1 to place it in the safe deposit box and to remove his belongings from the safe deposit box. During the conversation, the accused pretended to use his “walkie talkie” by lifting his right wrist to his mouth and saying “Roger, explaining to him”. The accused said in court that D1 went to his car boot and retrieved an orange bag before driving to Certis CISCO with the dummy camera. The accused drove to Eunos Industrial Park to park the rented car. He then walked back to the petrol station to wait for D1 who returned shortly after.

D1 did not carry out the accused’s instructions as the box and camera could not fit into the safe deposit box. After pretending to communicate on his “walkie talkie”, the accused told D1 that...