Three Manchester City supporters were at a coffeeshop discussing their club's defeat of Arsenal after a match last December when a supporter of the other team confronted them over the noise they were making, saying they were on his "operational ground".

A group of unidentified people then appeared and attacked the trio, all of whom had to be sent to hospital.

One of the three, technician Roger Lian Yong Hong, 32, was hit with a metal pole. He was cut on his forehead and swelling in the back of his head.

On Tuesday, Mr Lian's attacker, Lim Leng Hwee, 38, was fined $4,000 after pleading guilty to voluntarily causing hurt to his victim with the pole, and causing mischief by peeling off the padded flooring of his cell while he was in remand over the attack.

A district court heard that the three fans had gathered at the S-11 coffeeshop along Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10 to watch the match on the evening of Dec 14 last year.

They were discussing the match, which Man City had just won 6-3, when a man wearing a red Arsenal jersey approached them angrily.

The man, who appeared to be in his 50s, demanded to know why they were speaking so loudly. The attack began after they told the man they were merely enjoying themselves and that he did not have to shout.

In handing down the fine, $1,000 of which was for the mischief offence, the court considered the relatively minor injuries Lim had caused to Mr Lian, and $1,544.50 in compensation that he had paid to his victim and the police. It also took into account that Lim had been remanded over the attack for about a week.

For voluntarily causing hurt, Lim, who is unemployed, could have been jailed up to two years and fined up to $5,000.

Source: http://www.allsingaporestuff.com/article/arsenal-fans-attacked-man-city-...

Digital Printing company, Media Grafix Pte Ltd, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to falsely making claims under the Productivity Innovation Credit (PIC) scheme in order to take advantage of tax breaks and cash payouts.

The company had claimed in PIC forms submitted in August 2012 that it had incurred $24,150 in productivity-boosting expenses by buying computers. In fact, it had only spent $19,551. It also said that it spend $2,908 on networking equipment when it actually only spent about $1,598.

The PIC Scheme disbursed credits based on the claimed expenses when in fact they were false. By giving these false applications, Media Grafix was able to get higher payouts from the taxpayer-funded PIC scheme.

The PIC is an area which the government has just recently recognised needs tightening as many companies are exploiting the payouts by inflating prices or claiming false expenses.

The scheme itself was introduced in 2010 and was designed to incentivise businesses to invest in productivity-boosting technologies.

By 2013, there were a considerable number of false claims that IRAS set up a task force to catch individuals and businesses that were exploiting the scheme.

Offenders convicted of PIC fraud will have to pay a penalty of up to four times the amount of cash payout fraudulently obtained, and a fine of up to S$50,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years, IRAS said.

A 20 year old man was sentenced to reformative training for getting a 12 year old boy to give him oral sex.

The accused had pleaded guilty to the offence which occurred in June last year.

The man and the young boy had both been staying at the same children’s home when the accused had run into the victim outside a toilet cubicle as the younger victim was preparing to shower.

The accused had asked the young boy if he was ok as he was taking his clothes off to put into the laundry basket.

The accused approached the young boy and asked him to perform oral sex on him; the young boy complied.

Afterward, the 12 year old boy went into a cubicle and showered. Later, in July, the boy told the home’s superintendent about the incident and a police report was lodged.

The judge heard that although the act was consensual, the young boy was too young to be able to consent to sexual activities.

It was also considered an aggravating factor as the incident happened in a children’s home where young children should feel safe and secure.

The 20 year old man has been sentenced to 18 to 36 months of reformative training. He could have potentially faced a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail and a fine for having sex with someone under 16.

Edi Anuar Abdul Aziz was sentenced to 14 years in jail and 24 strokes of the cane on Thursday for penetrating a 5 year old girl's private part with his finger. Three other charges were also laid against him.

Edi, 47, had taken his friend's 5 year old daughter to a forested area near East Coast Parkway and taken off her clothing before inserting his finger into her private parts.

Edi had told the mother of the young girl that he wanted to take her to the convenience store and get her to show him the way back to her house.

After the sexual act, he then took the girl back to her block of flats and left her in the rain at the void deck.

Her mother later found the 5 year old girl at the void deck soaked and crying.

The offence had taken place on October 20 last year.

Edi was also charged with 6 other drug and robbery related offences but the prosecution only went ahead with 4 of them. He was also convicted of stealing a Samsung Galaxy mobile from a 12 year old girl at Sun Plaza Park.

In sentencing, the district Judge Lim Tse Haw said that Edi's sexual penetration of the 5 year old girl was beastly and reprehensible and it deserved the strongest condemnation. He also noted that Edi had committed a string of serious crimes.

In the sexual penetration incident, he pointed to the fact that Edi had left the girl out in the rain at the void deck after the act and the whole experience had left the young girl physically and emotionally scarred.

Therefore, it was reasonable to impose a very high sentence with the maximum strokes of the cane. 

A former police sergeant was on Tuesday slapped with 60 charges for a slew of offences, including criminal breach of trust and forgery.

Norazly Joihani, 33, was accused in court of committing the offences while working for the force between January 2009 and November 2010, reports The Straits Times. 

The former Bedok Police Division officer was interdicted from service from January 2011 before being discharged on March 1 this year for a "separate disciplinary matter", said a police spokesman, who gave no further details.

Norazly faces two counts of criminal breach of trust - which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail and a fine - for allegedly misappropriating more than $2,700 he was entrusted with. The sum has not been recouped.

Melvin Teo Boon Wei, 18, admitted to 'hacking' the Istana website in November last year but he also explained that he had done so as a "harmless joke" and wasn't even aware that it was illegal.

Melvin was convicted of unauthorised use of a computer service, an offence under the Computer misuse act. He is only the second person to be convicted of this offence. The first person convicted was Delson Moo Hiang Kng, 43.

Mr Moo was fined $8000 for his part in the hacking of the Istana website.

Moo and Teo had carried out a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack on the Istana website on November 8 last year.

While the attack had appeared to deface a page of the Istana website, this was achieved through script injection causing the webpage to show content from another website.

There was no breach of the website's databases and the website itself was unaffected by the attack. In fact, users could only view the defaced page by following a specific URL.

Lai Wai Khuen, 37 was sentenced to 14 months in jail and ordered to pay $18,000 for corruption.

The MDA assistant director pleaded guilty to forgery, trying to get a loan and getting 4 other loans of between $1,500 and $5,000.

Lai had corruptly obtained the loans in his job as the assistant director at MDA. He had been in charge of administering MDA grants which involved evaluating applications and recommending them for awards under various MDA schemes.

Using this position to his advantage, he had forged the directors signature of an acceptance letter and passed it to Ms Catherine Khoo Poh Lin. The letter outlined that Ms Khoo's company had been granted $50,000.

While she was still waiting for the payment of the grant, Lai asked her for a loan of $6000. Lai had taken advantage of the fact that Ms Khoo would feel obliged to lend him the money due to his position in MDA and the fact that she was made to believe she was about to receive a large grant.

Lai told her that he needed the money for his uncle's surgery but Ms Khoo only loaned him $2000. He did not pay back the money which eventually went to paying off gambling debts that Lai had incurred.

In a similar way, Lai had received loans from several other individuals.

Lai pleaded guilty to 6 of the charges and another 27 were considered in his sentencing.

The total amount of debts he had incurred corruptly was $18,800 but he had already paid back two of his creditors $500 and $300.

As a result, he was ordered to pay the remaining $18,000 and serve 14 months in jail.

An unemployed man who was unhappy with his neighbour for taking back his dog was jailed for two weeks on Monday (Jul 7) for criminal intimidation.

Ng Siang Hai, 24, pleaded guilty to threatening deliveryman Subramaniam Muruganantham, 46, by raising a chopper in his direction along the common corridor outside his unit at Block 742 Yishun Avenue 5 on Jan 14 this year, reports The Straits Times. 

The court heard that Ng approached Mr Subramaniam's nephew along the common corridor that evening and asked if he could see the victim's dog.

The victim's brother-in-law had given Ng a dog, and Ng had trimmed its fur.

Two days later, the victim took the dog back, causing Ng to be unhappy.

On Jan 14, after Ng had requested to see the dog, Mr Subramaniam came out and angrily asked Ng why. Ng said he just wanted to play with it but the victim refused.

Both had an argument. Ng became angry and returned to his flat to get a chopper which he used to confront the victim, asking why he was giving him "attitude problem'' when all he wanted was to see the dog.

Ng's friend told him not to use the chopper and took the weapon from him. Ng and Mr Subramaniam then proceeded to the lift landing where their altercation progressed into a physical struggle. Police came not long after and arrested Ng.

Ng could have been jailed for up to two years and/or fined for criminal intimidation.

A full-time national serviceman (NSF) who molested a woman was jailed for 30 months and ordered to be given three strokes of the cane on Wednesday.

Radin Rizwan Radin Rosman, 22, who faced three charges, admitted to groping the 25-year-old freelance graphic designer whom he restrained by using his weight to pin her down along a pathway in the West Coast area on March 17 this year.

According to a report in The Straits Times, the victim was sent to hospital where she was treated for bruising, superficial abrasions over her elbows and a small 2cm abrasion over her chest area.

Radin had a molestation and a dishonest misappropriation of a bicycle charge taken into consideration. He could have been jailed for up to 10 years on the proceeded charge.

An engineer who admitted causing his father's death in a car accident was fined $8,000 and banned from driving for five years on Wednesday.

Mr Albert Quek, 71, had been sat in the back of his 24-year-old son James Quek Teck Soon's Kia Picanto when it hit the back of a tipper truck then side-swiped a stationary Hyundai before coming to a stop at a traffic light island.

According to a report in The Straits Times, Quek Teck Soon pleaded guilty to causing his death by failing to keep a proper lookout ahead along Punggol Way on Feb 6 this year.

His 43-year-old brother Johnson Quek Teck Boon, who was sat in the front passenger seat, was seriously injured with fractures and a bruised right lung. He was warded for two weeks and given a total of 31 days hospitalisation leave.

Sheikh Rubel Hossen Sheikh Ismail, a 27 year old Bangladeshi construction worker, was sentenced to 4 months in jail for molesting a 12 year old girl. He had touched her calf and stroked her leg while he was in her flat renovating last month.

The 12 year old victim had been home alone with just her sister who was sleeping in the bedroom.

She had let Rubel into their flat as he was there to examine one of their toilets in preparation for the block's toilet upgrading scheme.

However, while Rubel was in the house, he touched the girl's calf and stroked up her leg a little.

Rubel pleaded guilty to the charge of molest and was sentenced to 4months in jail. 

A full-time national serviceman (NSF) who molested a woman was jailed for 30 months and ordered to be given three strokes of the cane on Wednesday.

Radin Rizwan Radin Rosman, 22, who faced three charges, admitted to groping the 25-year-old freelance graphic designer whom he restrained by using his weight to pin her down along a pathway in the West Coast area on March 17 this year.

According to a report in The Straits Times, the victim was sent to hospital where she was treated for bruising, superficial abrasions over her elbows and a small 2cm abrasion over her chest area.

Radin had a molestation and a dishonest misappropriation of a bicycle charge taken into consideration. He could have been jailed for up to 10 years on the proceeded charge.

City Harvest Church board members had backed the secular music career of Ms Ho Yeow Sun as a way to evangelise as far back as 2002, said one of the accused in the City Harvest trial on Monday as it resumed with the defence taking its turn.

According to a report in The Straits Times, the accused, former church board member John Lam Leng Hung, said the church had decided to reach out to young "unchurched" people through Ms Ho's music as it saw the entertainment industry "held sway" over them.

The board members also agreed that the church's backing of Ms Ho should be discreet so that the young people would not dismiss her music as "yet another church-sponsored project".

This need for discretion was reinforced in 2003, "when many of us were traumatised" by allegations of a former church member that the church was using members' money to support Ms Ho, he said.

"Even Christians from other churches couldn't understand how a church could be supporting what to them was a secular project. We knew that if the project was to continue, it cannot be seen that the church is actively supporting Sun," said Lam.

All six accused, including church founder Kong Hee, will testify. Kong's wife Ms Ho had appeared at the State Courts on the first day of each of the trial's previous tranches, but was not present on Monday when the trial resumed. She is expected to be called as a witness.

Pang Sou Bak, 30 was sentenced to 12 weeks in jail on Wednesday for secretly filming a female colleague changing in the supermarket toilets at Giant supermarket.

Pang was then the manager at Giant at Yishun Street 72. His victim was a 26 year old colleague of  his.

The incident occurred on May 29 when Pang had finished his shift for the day and had found out that the next person on shift was the 26 year old woman, a sales team leader at Giant.

He knew the victim and wanted to see her without her clothes on so he set up a camera in the staff toilet to film her changing.

The camera was discovered and Pang was later caught.

Koh Yong Chiah, 59, was charged in court on Thursday with giving false information to a public servant, an offence which carries a maximum fine of $5000 and up to 1 year in jail.

It is alleged that Koh had lied to CPIB investigators when they had been investigating a possible case of corruption involving Koh and an education service provider Loke Wai Lin, who he had an alleged affair with.

He was the Principal of Jurong JC at the time of the alleged incident.

Koh pleaded not guilty to the charges and the court set bail at $10,000.

Koh is being represented by defence lawyer Derek Kang and has his passport impounded for the duration of the trial.

His case will be heard again on August 26.

A retiree who assaulted a train commuter after a row over a seat was jailed for two weeks on Thursday.

According to a report in The Straits Times, Wong Shih Cher, 64, admitted causing hurt by repeatedly punching dealer Ng Keh Hee, 35, at Novena MRT station on July 9 last year.

The court heard that both men were on the North-South line train heading towards Woodlands when the dispute erupted after Mr Ng refused to give up his seat for an elderly woman who was standing up.

When the train reached Novena, Wong brushed past Mr Ng while alighting. Unhappy that he did not apologise, Mr Ng shouted at Wong before both got off to discuss the matter further.

Police said in a statement yesterday that they have arrested a 41 year old man in connected with 5 break-ins and thefts from Mosques around Singapore.

They explained that the suspect had broken into mosques after closing hours and forced open several donation boxes to steal their contents.

He hit 5 different mosques between May and July this year.

It took police a while to track down the man despite obtaining CCTV footage of him breaking into a Mosque.

They were unable to identify the man from just the footage and they had to make extensive inquiries on the ground.

After a long investigation, they were able to identify the man and they arrested him at Geylang Serai on July 16th at around 5:15 pm.

He is being charged in court today with the offence of Housebreaking and Theft by night.

This offence carries a maximum jail term of 14 years. 

After exchanging friendly greetings with a girl he met while jogging in a defunct cemetery, Hem Raj Thapa asked her to follow him into the woods. She agreed and they walked into the secluded area, later parting ways following a quick tryst.

The problem, however, was that the girl was only 15 years old, reports The Straits Times.

On Thursday the Nepalese man, 32, was sentenced to 12 months in jail after pleading guilty to underage sex with the girl last December. One similar charge was taken into consideration.

A district court heard that the pair had greeted each other after meeting along a footpath in the old Bidadiri cemetery near Woodleigh MRT station, between 6.30pm and 7.30pm last Dec 29.

MIAMI — A jury in northwestern Florida awarded a staggering $23 billion judgment late Friday against the country’s second-largest tobacco company for causing the death of a chain smoker who died of lung cancer at the age of 36.

The company, the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, promised a prompt appeal.

Michael Johnson Sr. died in 1996 after smoking for more than 20 years. In 2006, his widow, Cynthia Robinson, of Pensacola, sued R. J. Reynolds the maker of the Kool brand cigarettes her husband had smoked, arguing that the company had deliberately concealed the health hazards its product caused.

The four-week trial ended Wednesday. The jury deliberated for 18 hours over two days, first awarding $17 million in compensatory damages and then emerging at 10 p.m. Friday with a $23.6 billion punitive judgment.

“When they first read the verdict, I know I heard ‘million,’ and I got so excited,” Ms. Robinson said in a phone interview Saturday. “Then the attorney informed me that was a ‘B’ — billion. It was just unbelievable.”

She said Mr. Johnson, a longshoreman and hotel shuttle bus driver to whom she was married from 1990 until his death six years later, began smoking around age 13. He often lit a fresh cigarette with the butt end of another.

“He really did smoke a lot,” she said.

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/business/jury-awards-23-6-billion-in-f...

*photo for illustration purposes only

SINGAPORE - While heading home after work one evening, a PRC site engineer noticed a neighbour walking past and thought she was attractive. He ended up following her to her block and molesting her in a lift.

On Tuesday Wang Xiong, 24, was sentenced to six months in prison after pleading guilty to outraging the 27-year-old's modesty on Jan 27 this year. One other count of molest, committed against a 21-year-old girl six days earlier in a similar fashion, was taken into consideration.

The court heard that around 7.45pm that night, the Chinese national had exited Pioneer MRT and was walking towards his rented flat along Jurong West Street 65.

This was when he spotted and tailed his neighbour, who lived in the adjacent block of flats.

She entered and pressed the button for the third floor but he entered immediately after, standing near her after pressing for level 10.

As she moved to exit when the elevator reached her floor, he touched her breast. She shrugged him off and shouted for help, grappling with him, but he managed to run out of the lift and down the stairs. She went home and called the police after giving chase unsuccessfully.

In mitigation, Wang, who is here on work pass, said through his lawyer that he had ended up following the girl to her block due to a "momentary memory lapse".

He could have been jailed up to two years, caned and fined for using criminal force to outrage his victim's modesty.

*Article first appeared on http://sgtalk.org/mybb/Thread-Site-engineer-jailed-six-months-for-molest...