Public Prosecutor v Tan Ping Koon and Another

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Tay Yong Kwang J
• Judgment Date: 09 September 2004
• Neutral Citation: [2004] SGHC 205
• Court: High Court (Singapore)
• Published date: 15 September 2004
• Year: 2004
• Plaintiff Counsel: David Khoo and Magdalene Koh (Deputy Public Prosecutors)
• Defendant Counsel: Subhas Anandan and Anand Nalachandran (Harry Elias Partnership),Lee Teck Leng (Lee Associates) and Chen Chee Yen (Tan Peng Chin LLC)
• Subject Matter: Criminal Law,Statutory offences,Kidnapping,Meaning of Abduction,Section 3 Kidnapping Act (Cap 151, 1999 Rev Ed).,Whether demand for ransom necessary to establish offence,Criminal Procedure and Sentencing,Sentencing,Forms of punishment,Whether to impose imprisonment for life or death penalty,Whether to impose caning.
• Citation: [2004] SGHC 205

9 September 2004

Tay Yong Kwang J:

The charges

1 Tan Ping Koon (“the first accused”) claimed trial to the following charge:

You, Tan Ping Koon, on the 25^th of December 2003, at about 4.30 pm at No XX YY Avenue, Singapore, together with one Chua Ser Lien, and in furtherance of the common intention of you both, abducted one S (Date of Birth: 28.06.1996), with intent to hold the said S for ransom, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under section 3 of the Kidnapping Act, Chapter 151, read with section 34 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.

I have omitted the house number and street name, and used a pseudonym “S” as the name of the victim as she is only eight years old now and still resides in that house which I shall refer to as “the house in question”.

2 Chua Ser Lien (“the second accused”) claimed trial to a similar charge except that in his charge, the name of the first accused in the charge above has been substituted with that of the second accused and vice versa.

The Statement of Agreed Facts

3 The Prosecution and the two teams of defence counsel for the accused persons managed to draw up a Statement of Agreed Facts, thereby obviating the calling of dozens of witnesses to testify in court, including the victim and two of her young siblings. By this very pragmatic and focused approach to fulfilling their duties to the court and to their respective clients, they have saved a lot of time for the witnesses, the investigators and the court and probably spared the young witnesses some anxiety as well. I am therefore deeply appreciative of the pre-trial work done by Deputy Public Prosecutor David Khoo, Mr Subhas Anandan and Mr Lee Teck Leng, the respective lead counsel for the Defence, and their assistants. I am pleased to note that such a commendable attitude has always been characteristic of Mr Subhas Anandan and Mr Lee Teck Leng whenever they appear in my court.

4 I now highlight the salient points in the Statement of Agreed Facts, which incorporated, by reference, the statements made by both accused persons to the police during the investigations.

5 The first accused is now 35 years old while the second accused is now 42 years old. They both resided in the Tampines public housing estate and have known each other for about seven years. Both were self-employed. In late 2003, both of them were heavily in debt, each owing his creditors about half a million dollars or more.

6 In early December 2003, they met to discuss ways of settling their huge debts. At first, they toyed with the idea of trafficking in drugs but decided that was too risky and would not give them the returns they needed to solve their financial woes. The second accused then suggested kidnap as an alternative and the first accused agreed to join him.

7 About a week before Christmas 2003, with the pressure from creditors and from business expenses building up, the two friends “decided to go for it”. They reckoned they required about $2m to settle their problems and therefore begun to discuss the possible targets who could afford to pay this amount. They eventually narrowed the possibilities to two companies.

8 Later, they went to the then Registry of Companies and Businesses in International Plaza and, with the assistance of the staff there, obtained the print-outs on the particulars of the two companies, which included the residential addresses of their directors. The first accused noted that one of the companies, a public one, had an impressive paid-up capital.

9 The next day, they drove to the residential addresses of the respective managing directors of the said companies to do a survey. After some time, they decided to zero in on the managing director of the public listed company. Through a childhood friend, the second accused had heard about that managing director and was confident he could afford to pay a ransom of $2m. The childhood friend used to be a business partner of the said managing director. They then did a stake-out on the business premises of that company and the home of that managing director to confirm that he was living at that residential address by noting the presence of the same chauffeur-driven luxury car in both locations. The said managing director, whom I shall refer to as D, is the father of S and the residential address is the one stated in the kidnapping charges.

10 The accused persons decided to kidnap one of D’s children. They would keep the kidnapped child in the first accused’s flat and then ask D for a ransom of $2m. They planned to use the second accused’s car, a silver-coloured Toyota RAV-4 with the registration number SDS 6603Z. To prepare for the kidnap, they went to several shops in the Ubi industrial estate and purchased wrapping papers and sunshades to try to disguise the RAV-4, masking tape, a screwdriver, two black caps and nylon string. They also went to make false number plates for the RAV-4, coming up with the fictitious registration number SDM 4569 (according to the second accused) or SBM 4569Z (according to the first accused). All these items were kept in the RAV-4.

11 On 23 December 2003, the second accused spent $400 buying 4D lottery tickets on the real and the fictitious registration numbers (6603 and 4569). He informed the first accused that if any of the numbers should strike on Christmas eve, they would have a windfall of almost $200,000 and would then call off the kidnap. However, luck eluded them.

12 On Christmas day, the second accused contacted the first accused around noon and they decided to drive to the house in question to have a look. They noticed the family’s multi-purpose vehicle (“MPV”) parked along the road outside the house. D’s luxury car was not around. The gates were opened and there were three or four female adults talking in the garden. There were also two or three children in the compound of the house. They decided it was a good time to kidnap any of the children. They then drove to a small lane not too far away to change the number plates of the RAV-4 and to “decorate” or disguise it by pasting wrapping paper on the doors and the spare tyre cover. They also placed the sunshades on the windows and the rear windscreen. From there, the first accused took over as the driver as he was “too fat for fast movement”.

13 They returned to the house in question but the children could no longer be seen. They parked the RAV-4 behind the MPV. The second accused used the screwdriver to release the air from the MPV’s left front and rear tyres and then returned to his car to have a cigarette. He told the first accused to be ready by putting on his black cap and having the car in “drive” gear. At about 4.30pm, he walked to the house in question.

14 D’s family was preparing for a Christmas party to be held in the house later that evening. The gates were left ajar as the catering assistants and the event co-ordinator were setting up the buffet tables and the decorations. D was not home at that time. His wife was on the second level of the three-storey house. Three of their children were in the living room. Two of them were seated on the floor playing electronic games on the television set while S was seated on the sofa behind them.

15 As the second accused walked into the compound of the house, he used a handkerchief to mask the lower half of his face. He opened the main door leading to the living room and saw the three children. He decided to grab hold of S because she was nearest to him. He then carried S and dashed out of the house with her. When S started screaming, he used his left hand to cover her mouth. The first accused heard the screaming and quickly pulled the RAV-4 to the front entrance of the house. The second accused opened the rear door and jumped into the back seat with S. The car then sped away towards Yio Chu Kang Road.

16 Coincidentally, as the second accused was making his way into the house earlier, Ang Teck Ann arrived at the house in his van with his wife, Chua Siew Eng and her colleague, Ho Yen Yen. Both ladies worked as catering assistants and were there to help set up the buffet. Ang Teck Ann was giving them a lift there. After letting the two ladies alight, Ang Teck Ann drove off. As they walked into the compound of the house, the second accused dashed out carrying S.

17 Ho Yen Yen and one of S’s siblings noticed that the getaway car was white in colour. In addition, Ho Yen Yen managed to catch a glimpse of its registration number plate which, she believed, was SDN 4569. In the meantime, S’s mother, who had heard the commotion, went down to the ground floor and was informed by her two children and the catering assistants about what had happened. She immediately called the police who received the following message:

My daughter was kidnapped. We were in the middle of a party when a man came in a white Mercedes and took her away in the vehicle. The vehicle is SDN 4569. It is going towards Punggol direction.

It was unclear who told her the getaway car was a Mercedes.

18 Ho Yen Yen told Chua Siew Eng to alert her husband about the getaway car. Chua Siew Eng then called her husband on his mobile phone, told him about the incident and asked him to look out for a car bearing the number 4569. He was then in the vicinity of Yio Chu Kang Road. About that time, the speeding RAV-4 overtook his van, made a U-turn and headed for Pasir Ris. Ang Teck Ann followed the RAV-4 in his van.

19 Inside the RAV-4, the second accused wanted to use a T-shirt to cover S’s face but she told him not to do so, promising him she would not tell her mother. He also wanted to use masking tape on her mouth but did not do so as she said she was afraid. They spoke to each other casually. She told him she did not know her father’s name when he asked her about it.

20 The first accused then informed the second accused that there was a white vehicle tailing them and that that vehicle had earlier dropped off two passengers outside the house in question....