Public Prosecutor v Lim Boon Wah

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Soh Tze Bian
• Judgment Date: 03 January 2013
• Neutral Citation: [2013] SGDC 1
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Docket Number: DAC 500111/2012 & others, Magistrate’s Appeal No. 005/2013/01
• Published date: 16 July 2013
• Year: 2013
• Hearing Date: 21 December 2012
• Plaintiff Counsel: Deputy Public Prosecutor Jeremy Yeo Shenglong
• Defendant Counsel: Ms Nadia Yeo (Rodyk & Davidson LLP)
• Citation: [2013] SGDC 1

District Judge Soh Tze Bian: Charges

On 21 December 2012, the accused person (AP), male/38, a Singaporean was brought before me to face a total of 26 charges for 3 categories of offences where he pleaded guilty to 5 charges as follows: In DAC 500111/2012, the AP was charged that he, sometime in February 2010, Singapore, being an insurance agent, and entrusted in the way of his business as an agent with dominion over property, namely a sum of $34,579.50/- which was entrusted to him by one Wee Wai Hung for the purpose of reinvestment into Achiever Protector bearing policy number U122236956, did dishonestly misappropriate the said sum by converting it to his own use, and he has thereby committed an offence of Criminal Breach of Trust as an Agent, punishable under Section 409 of the Penal Code (Cap 224). This was an offence punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 20 years, and he shall also be liable to a fine. In DAC 500114/2012, the AP was charged that he, sometime in July 2007, Singapore, being an AIA insurance agent, and entrusted in the way of his business as an agent with dominion over property, namely a sum of $8,639/- which was entrusted to him by one Tan Peay Kiang for the purpose of reinvestment into a 25 years special policy bearing number L524627862 and Lift Endowment special policy bearing number L533436086, did dishonestly misappropriate the said sum by converting it to his own use, and he has thereby committed an offence of Criminal Breach of Trust as an Agent, punishable under Section 409 of the Penal Code (Cap 224). This was an offence punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years, and he shall also be liable to a fine. In DAC 500115/2012, the AP was charged that he, sometime in April 2009, Singapore, being an AIA insurance agent, and entrusted in the way of his business as an agent with dominion over property did dishonestly misappropriate a sum of $1,393.93/- which was entrusted to him by one Tan Peay Kiang for the purpose of paying her premium for AIA US$ Guaranteed 15 for life policy bearing number L536703143, did dishonestly misappropriate the said sum by converting it to his own use, and he has thereby committed an offence of Criminal Breach of Trust as an Agent, punishable under Section 409 of the Penal Code (Cap 224). This was an offence punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 20 years, and he shall also be liable to a fine. In DAC 500123/2012, the AP was charged that he, sometime in 2005, Singapore, did cheat one Sophia Tang Yen Wern, by deceiving her into believing that she would get a higher interest if she re-deposit her $15,000/- into AIA's account, a fact which he knew to be false and by such manner of deception, he dishonestly induced the said Sophia Tang Yen Wern to deliver cash of $15,000/- being for investment purpose, and he has thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 420 of the Penal Code (Cap 224). This was an offence punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 7 years, and he shall also be liable to a fine. In DAC 500131/2012, the AP was charged that he, on 10 February 2010, Singapore, did dishonestly execute a document, to wit, AIA's change of address & contact information form, with the intention of causing AIA to be believed that Ong Siew Wei had changed her address to 146 Pemimpin Place Singapore 576121, and he has thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 465 of the Penal Code (Cap 224). This was an offence punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 4 years, or with fine, or with both.

The AP consented to the remaining 21 charges been taken into consideration for the purpose of sentencing which comprised 4 cheating charges under section 420 of the Penal Code involving a loss amount of $26,500; 10 charges of forgery under section 465 of the Penal Code where no monetary loss was suffered by the victims; and 7 charges of CBT as an agent under section 409 of the Penal Code where the loss amount (after restitution of $12300) was $6999.

Statement of facts

The AP had admitted to the statement of facts without qualification as follows:

‘1. The accused is Lim Boon Wah, male/38 years old, NRIC No SXXXXXXXF.

2. On 14 October 2010, the accused turned himself in at Ang Mo Kio North Neighbourhood Police Centre and reported that he had misappropriated monies belonging to his former clients. The accused did so after one of these former clients, one Wee Wai Hung, male / 45 years old ("VT), had lodged a complaint against him.

Overview of the accused's offences

3. Investigations revealed that the accused was an insurance agent working under the employ of the American International Assurance Company, Limited ("AIA") from 1998 to 2010. From 2005 to 2010, the accused had committed a series of offences in connection with the insurance policies of several of his clients. These offences can be classified into 3 categories: (a) Cheating - The accused dishonestly represented to his clients that they could invest in certain insurance policies with attractive returns, when such policies did not exist. By such deception, the accused induced his clients to deliver monies to him, being the payment for the purported insurance policies. The accused then either : (i) Used these monies to purchase actual insurance policies with less attractive terms for his clients, in order to meet AIA's promotion quota; or (ii) Dishonestly misappropriated the monies to pay for his personal expenses. (b) Criminal Breach of Trust - The accused was entrusted by his clients with cash payments on several occasions, which were meant to pay the premiums on their AIA insurance policies. Instead of handing over these payments to AIA, the accused dishonestly misappropriated them to pay for his personal expenses. (c) Forgery - The accused fraudulently forged the following documents in connection with his clients' insurance policies: (i) Application forms for new AIA policies which the accused executed in the names of his clients, without their knowledge. The accused executed these forms because he wanted to meet AIA's promotion quota. (ii) Letters from AIA to his clients informing them that AIA had received their payments for the premiums on their insurance policies, when these payments had actually been misappropriated by the accused. (iii) Change of address forms which the accused executed in the names of his clients, without their knowledge. These forms were meant to inform AIA that a policyholder had changed his/her address and the accused executed such forms to prevent his clients from receiving notifications from AIA that their insurance policies had lapsed due to premiums not being paid. 4 The victims which the accused had defrauded are listed as follows: (a) V1; (b) Tan Peay Kiang, female/36 years old ("V2"); (c) Brittany Cheng Yong Hui, female/32 years old ("V3"); (d) Sophia Tang Yen Wen, female/32 years old ("V4"); (e) Gladys Ng Siew May, female/36 years old ("V5"); (f) Grace Ng Siew Ching, female / 39 years old ("V6"); (g) Lam Swam Wui, male / 35 years old ("V7"); and (h) Ong Siew Wei, female / 36 years old ("V8"). 5 The following table contains a breakdown of the accused's offences and the sums involved:

Offence	Number of charges	Loss to victims
Cheating (Section 420, Penal Code)	5 (Proceed 1, TIC 4)	S$41,500 (S$15,000 for proceeded charge; S$26,500 for TIC charges)
CBT as an agent (Section 409, Penal Code)	10 (Proceed 3, TIC 7)	S$63,911.43 (S$44,612.43 for proceeded charges, S$19,299 for TIC charges)
Forgery (Section 465, Penal Code)	11 (Proceed 1, TIC 10)	No monetary loss caused from forgery offences
TOTAL	26 (Proceed 5, TIC 21)	S$105,411.43 (S$59,612.43 for proceeded charges, S$45,799 for TIC charges)

Facts pertaining to DAC 500111/2012 (5th Charge)

6. Sometime in February 2010, V1, who was one of the accused's clients, instructed the accused to withdraw part of the monies from V1’s AIA insurance policy, as V1 wanted to use these monies for his own investment. The accused complied and subsequently, V1 received a cheque for S$34,579.50 from AIA. 7. V1 subsequently changed his mind about investing the said monies and asked the accused to put back the monies into his AIA insurance policy referred to above. To this end, V1 entrusted the accused with two cheques totalling S$34,579.50. 8. The accused did not transfer the S$34,579.50 back to V1’s insurance policy and instead dishonestly misappropriated the same to pay for his personal expenses. The accused has therefore committed an offence punishable under Section 409 of the Penal Code (Cap 224).

Facts pertaining to DAC 500114/2012 and DAC 500115/2012 (8th and 9th Charges)

9. Sometime in July 2007, V2, who was another of the accused's clients, received two coupons from AIA amounting to US$3,314.82 and US$5,000, which were returns from her existing insurance policies with AIA. V2 instructed the accused to re-invest these amounts into her existing policies but was advised by the accused to bank in the cheques first and to issue a consolidated cheque to him later. V2 complied and subsequently entrusted the accused with a cheque for S$8639.

10. The accused did not reinvest this sum into V2’s insurance policies and instead dishonestly misappropriated the same to pay for his personal expenses.

11. Subsequently, sometime in April 2009, V2 entrusted the accused with another cheque for S$1,393.93 which was meant to pay the premium on her son's insurance policy. The accused did not use this cheque to pay the premium on the said policy and instead dishonestly...