Source : Straits Times - 20 Jan 2009
A VETERAN lawyer has failed in his appeal against his conviction for helping a Housing Board flat owner make a false claim in court five years ago.
However, Bachoo Mohan Singh, a lawyer for more than 30 years, did have his three-month jail term reduced to one month by the High Court and was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.
Singh was found guilty in the lower court in 2007 of helping to file a claim which stated that the five-room Redhill flat was to be sold for an inflated price of $490,000 in April 2004.
In the High Court yesterday, his lawyer, Senior Counsel Michael Hwang, said that Singh, 60, did not break the law by acting for a flat owner to sue a buyer after a sale fell through.
He did what any reasonable lawyer would have done and acted on his client’s instructions, said Mr Hwang.
If the conviction was allowed to stand, lawyers here would have to investigate and pass judgment on the truth of all clients’ claims before filing them in court, said the senior counsel, who is also president of the Law Society.
Mr Hwang also said defence lawyers could threaten opposing lawyers by saying that the claims they filed were false, reporting these to the police and thus delaying hearings while police investigated these allegations.
But Justice Tay Yong Kwang said the issue in Singh’s case was not whether a lawyer has to verify the truth of facts stated by a client, as described by Mr Hwang.
‘In this case, the lawyer had knowledge that the sales and purchase agreement contains a false inflated price and nevertheless, proceeded with a claim based on this false price…’ the judge said.
Singh is said to have instructed law firm K.K. Yap & Partners to file a writ of summons on behalf of Mr Koh Sia Kang and his wife against a couple who had failed to buy their five-room Redhill flat after agreeing to do so.
The district court found that although the agreed selling price for the Kohs’ flat was $390,000, the price had been inflated by $100,000 in the purchase agreement, and it was this false amount that was stated in the claim.
Singh maintained he had no idea that the price had been inflated but was found guilty and sentenced to three months’ jail in September 2007 after a 50-day trial.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Lee Sing Lit reminded the High Court that the property agents involved in the scam had testified that Singh was aware that the parties to the sale had inflated the purchase amount.
Both agents were fined $8,000 for their role in 2006.
Asking for a lighter sentence for Singh, Mr Hwang said it was his client who blew the whistle on the scam. ‘The person who instigated the investigation was himself prosecuted,’ he added.
Singh is intending to take his case to the country’s highest court, the Court of Appeal, after seeking the High Court’s permission.
He is currently out on bail of $125,000 put forward by his sister Ivy Singh-Lim, a former head of the netball association here.
About 30 observers, made up of family members, friends and lawyers attended yesterday’s appeal hearing.
About the case
BACHOO Mohan Singh, 60, was convicted in a district court and jailed for two years ago for helping Mr Koh Sia Kang, 55, a Housing Board flat owner, make a false declaration.
The lower court heard that although the agreed selling price of Mr Kang’s Redhill flat was $390,000, the price had been inflated by $100,000 as part of a so-called ‘cashback’ scam.
It involves a property seller declaring a higher price in order to get a higher loan for the buyer. The cash difference between the prices is either kept by the buyer or split with the seller.
These scams were rife before the relevant law was tightened three years ago.
Mr Koh, a taxi driver, was to hand the difference to the agent who had arranged the scam. The deal fell through, and Mr Koh went to court, claiming unspecified damages. He received only $380,000 for his flat after the initial buyers pulled out. The buyers paid him $70,000 to settle the matter.
Property agent Kereen Teo Pei Pei, 29, was convicted and fined $8,000 in 2006 for trying to cheat DBS Bank by inflating the price of Mr Koh’s flat. Her manager was also fined.
Mr Koh has yet to be charged with any offence.
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