The High Court has ordered the exclusive Singapore Island Country Club (SICC) to reveal the identity of a member who called himself "Zoro", as he allegedly attacked another member in an online forum.
 
Mr Lai Chong Meng, the target of Zoro's comments, believed he was defamed and wanted to sue, but the club would not tell him who Zoro was, as reported by The Straits Times.
 
So Mr Lai went to the High Court, where Assistant Registrar Justin Yeo gave him the go-ahead on Monday to get the information from the club.
 
This is believed to be the first such case, sending a signal that those who use pseudonyms when they log in to online forums could well end up having their identities revealed. The SICC's online forum is controlled by the club; members must log in before commenting on club matters and they can use pseudonyms.
 
Mr Lai, an engineer by training and a club member since 1993, claimed Zoro made defamatory remarks in three postings over three days in September this year.
 
He and Zoro crossed swords during the run-up to the SICC's hard-fought general committee elections on Sept 27, which saw weeks of intense lobbying by those competing to take over running the club.
 
On Sept 23, Mr Lai posted his comments about the incumbent committee, making clear he did not lean against any competing side, had no personal issue and was acting on his own.
 
Zoro responded with two postings and Mr Lai took offence. He sought a retraction and apology, but Zoro put out a third allegedly defamatory posting on Sept 27.
 
Mr Lai said he asked for Zoro's details, but was told that chairman James Koh Cher Siang and then general manager Sylvan Braberry felt the information had to remain confidential. The club suggested that he seek a court order.
 
Through WongPartnership lawyer Chua Sui Tong, Mr Lai made clear in court papers that the club is not a potential party to any legal action he takes. As for when Zoro will be unmasked, the SICC - represented by Allen & Gledhill's Mr Ramesh Kumar - is expected to file the information by the court-imposed deadline next week.
 
Club president Tay Joo Soon, who was re-elected, told The Straits Times yesterday that it will comply with the court order.
 
"We generally do not disclose the identities of forum members. One exception to this is when we are required to do so under an order of court," he said, adding that the club would not say more on the matter as this was a private dispute between two members.

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A Malaysian hairstylist, who took upskirt video clips of women at MRT stations, was jailed for nine weeks on Friday for insulting their modesty.

Yap Wen Jack, 20, faced a total of 39 counts of using a mobile phone camera to capture video recordings of victims in dresses, skirts and shorts between September and October this year. He pleaded guilty to nine charges and had the remaining charges taken into consideration.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Eunice Lau said a 34-year-old teacher was going up the escalator with her mother and son at Yishun MRT Station on Sept 29 when she saw Yap following her immediately from behind and standing between herself and her mother.

The victim saw that he had positioned himself such that his feet were on different steps and that he had placed his mobile phone on his thigh nearest to her, with its camera lens facing upwards. When the victim and Yap reached the train platform, he quickly walked away and checked his mobile phone. He then boarded the train. The victim, who was wearing a long denim top with a pair of shorts underneath, suspected that Yap had taken a video or photo from under her skirt and felt offended.

A human resource manager who pointed at a cafe waitress' breast and asked if his coffee was "from this machine" was fined $1,000 yesterday for insulting the woman's modesty.
 
Pannirchelvam Ramachandra, 45, was also jailed for 3 and a half months for striking the cafe supervisor and throwing a bowl at him, reports The Straits Times. 
 
Pannirchelvam was in the cafe of a hotel in Bendemeer between 7am and 9am with a friend when he ordered two cups of coffee.
 
The waitress, 33, asked him if he wanted the buffet coffee, which was complimentary, or coffee from an espresso machine, which had to be paid for.
 
He ordered the espresso coffee and asked the insulting question when the waitress served the order. When the cafe supervisor presented the bill, Pannirchelvam turned abusive.
 
The supervisor walked away and video footage showed Pannirchelvam filling a bowl with noodles from the buffet and flinging it at the man's head. He later struck the supervisor's nose with the back of his hand.
 
The Straits Times is not naming the victims or the hotel in order to protect the identity of the waitress.
 
Pannirchelvam, who has previous convictions for disorderly behaviour and causing hurt to others, told the district court that he had alcohol dependency problems.
 
He will start his jail term on Jan 16 so as to settle work and family commitments.
 
Pannirchelvam could have been jailed for up to two years and fined up to $5,000 just for the offence of hitting the supervisor.

An Indonesian maid was jailed for two weeks on Tuesday for slapping her employer's three-year-old daughter on the cheek twice.
 
Dainawati, 25, who goes by one name, pleaded guilty to causing hurt to the child who suffered a bruise on her face. The incident took place at a flat in Commonwealth Drive on July 4 last year, reports The Straits Times. 
 
The maid had been working for the employer - the child's mother - since December 2011, and had been entrusted with caring for the child for a few months. On July 4 last year, the employer returned home and found multiple marks on the left side of the girl's face. When questioned, Dianawati lied that the girl fell and hurt herself in the toilet.
 
The employer checked with her brother, who shared the same flat, and he said the marks did not appear to have been caused by a fall in the toilet. She then asked the victim who told her that the maid had slapped her twice.
 
Investigation showed that Dainawati was frustrated at the child's misbehaviour. The girl had refused to urinate in the toilet but later did so on the living room floor. When the maid tried to carry her to the toilet, she refused and she slapped her.
 
Dainawati said in her mitigation that she was very sorry for her actions. She could have been jailed for up to two years and/or fined up to $5,000.

Posing as a girl, Johnson Song Jian Sheng tricked a 16-year-old girl into an online game of "strip" hangman.
 
He later used the screenshots he took to coerce her into exposing herself further, reports The Straits Times. 
 
Yesterday, the 24-year-old was sentenced to four weeks' jail.
 
His lawyer, Mr Rajah Retnam, argued in mitigation that while Song had used a false name, this was a common practice on the Internet.
 
He also pointed out that the victim had volunteered to strip while playing hangman, and Song's actions were not planned.
 
But District Judge Lee Poh Choo pointed out how Song repeatedly lied to hide his identity to take "advantage of a very young schoolgirl".
 
She also agreed with Deputy Public Prosecutor Sarah Ong that there was a high risk of the pictures being circulated online.
 
Song, who could have been jailed for up to two years and/or fined for criminal intimidation, got to know the girl when he befriended her on Facebook some time in June 2011 using the name "Eunice Chong", and later, "Care Foryouu".
 
On July 2, while at home, he persuaded her into playing a game in which the loser had to remove a piece of clothing.
 
He also told her his webcam was not working, which was why he could see her but she could not see him.
 
Thinking Song was a girl, she agreed. When she was left wearing only her panties, he asked her to pose and took several screenshots.
 
On the evening of Nov 6 - four days after his 22nd birthday - Song, who was then doing his national service, sent the girl a message on Facebook, asking her to chat over the webcam again.
 
She refused.
 
He then threatened to post her semi-nude photos. About 11/2 hours later, he sent her two of her pictures, and another of her aunt's company website. He then warned her that he would post her photos online unless she posed for him.
 
When asked to show her private parts, she exposed one breast and pushed down her panties.
 
The girl made a police report the next day.

A director of a construction company, who pushed and punched a delivery driver in a road rage incident, was sentenced to jail for a week on Friday.

Dong Shuqiang, 49, admitted to causing hurt to Mr Ong Beng Aik, 40, at Alexandra Road in front of Delta House on Aug 25 last year.

A court heard that Dong was driving a Toyota car on the leftmost lane of Alexandra Road that evening when Mr Ong, who was on the second leftmost lane, wanted to cut in after signalling, reports The Straits Times Online.

Dong, who was concerned that Mr Ong's car was too close, sounded his horn and the victim filtered back to his lane so that Dong could pass.

The victim gestured in an apologetic manner. Dong refused to give way to him and accelerated to prevent the victim from filtering into the leftmost lane.

When the vehicles came to a stop at the traffic light in front of Delta House, Dong got out of his car and confronted the victim, who had also alighted.

Before the victim could say anything, Dong pushed him and gave him a punch on the left cheek.

Dong could have been jailed for up to two years and/or fined up to $5,000 for voluntarily causing hurt.

Dong is likely to be from the PRC, looking at his name. It is not known if he is a Singapore PR or a new citizen. 

A PRC man was fined a total of $72,000 on Monday on nine charges of conspiring with others to forge documents in China.

Student agent Wang Hongtian, 28, a Singapore permanent resident, admitted to abetment by conspiracy to forge documents in China with co-accused Xu Changqing, 29, Xu Rui, 26, and others unknown in China, reports The Straits Times.

Eighteen other charges were considered during his sentencing.

A district court heard he was arrested on Jan 13 this year. Twenty-seven hardcopy forged documents were seized from him such as certificates purportedly issued by Murdoch University and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

His arrest followed student He Lingting's arrest on Jan 10 for selling university certificates and transcripts online. The 21-year-old female Chinese national had implicated her boyfriend, Xu Changqing, Xu Rui and Wang.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Vadi PVSS told the court that sometime last year, Wang came to know unknown persons in China on the Internet. He would get forged documents which were fraudulently produced from these unknown persons with the intention of causing it to be believed that they were issued by various local and foreign educational institutions.

He conspired with the two Xus to market forged documents to prospective clients in Singapore. He would pay about $1,000 for each document and would sell it for $1,500 to $2,000. Investigation showed that he sold fake school certificates to more than 10 students and earned about $5,000 to $8,000.

Xu Changqing had been fined a total of $12,000; Xu Rui, $6,000 and He, $5,000.

Wang could have been jailed for up to four years and/or fined on each charge.

Will we see more similar cases in the future? It seems like the Singapore government is neglecting these problems brought in by their so called "Foreign Talents".

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A real estate agent began sexually exploiting his 11-year-old step-daughter about six months after he married her mother, reports The Straits Times. 
 
The man, now 37, started by groping her under her clothes at night while the family was living in Johor, Malaysia, in June 2008. Over the next three years, he moved on to other forms of sexual abuse. He dictated sleeping arrangements so that the girl always slept close to him and a few times, he barged into the toilet while she was bathing.
 
In October 2011, when the girl was 14, he raped her.
 
On Monday, the man pleaded guilty to seven charges - for rape, sexual assault of a minor, outrage of modesty and causing hurt. He also admitted causing hurt to the girl's younger sister by punching, kicking and slapping her. The younger girl was not sexually attacked.

She stole more than $38,000 worth of jewellery from her adoptive mother in order to give the 66-year-old a monthly allowance of $500.
 
In sentencing 24-year-old Sarina Chan Jee Chin to 21 months of probation and 130 hours of community service, District Judge Low Wee Ping said: "I don't think you are a criminal to be put in prison, but it was a very foolish way to please your adoptive mother."
 
Chan, who is from China and adopted when she was four, could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined for theft after pleading guilty.
 
The prosecution had argued that there was nothing unusual about this case to spare Chan a jail term, but the judge disagreed, saying there were "many special circumstances", including how ample restitution had been made.
 
When the prosecution highlighted the high value of jewellery stolen, defence counsel Edmund Wong said that Chan had returned $19,185 while $18,860 of the stolen items had been recovered by the police.
 
"If you add this to the monthly allowance Madam Yeo received over three years, she gained more than she lost," Mr Wong pointed out.
 
The judge also referred to Chan's good academic results, having graduated from Nanyang Polytechnic with a diploma in visual communications, and her present job as a free-lance media research consultant.
 
He said: "It would be excessive punishment to destroy all this and give her a criminal record."
 
It was in late 2010, after her graduation, when her adoptive mother Madam Yeo Ah Moy asked for a monthly allowance.
 
Unable to find a job, she resorted to stealing $2,255 worth of gold jewellery from a drawer in Madam Yeo's bedroom in March 2011, which she then pawned.
 
She stole three more times the next year, and then for the final time this January.
 
Five months later, Madam Yeo discovered her jewellery missing and went to the police.
 
In the probation report, Madam Yeo's husband said that he did not support a probation sentence for Chan.
 
But Judge Low said this was because he feared offending his wife.
 
Chan's lawyer also revealed that despite being estranged from her adoptive family - she is now living alone - his client had expressed the desire to support Madam Yeo in the years ahead.

Chinese businessman Zhang Jie was arrested in Terminal 1 at about 3pm on Oct 9, after an airport security officer found $933,870 in Singapore currency and NT$10,000 (S$420) in the two bags he had with him.

He stepped into the Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) casino in October. After three days, he emerged with a staggering $4.6 million in winnings, as reported by The Straits Times.

Rushing to catch a flight to Thailand on the afternoon of Oct 9 for a business meeting, the 45-year-old stuffed nearly $1 million in cash into two bags and headed directly to Changi Airport from the casino. That was when his luck ran out.

Under the law, those entering or leaving Singapore with more than $30,000 must declare it to the authorities.

Yesterday, Zhang was fined $20,000 for the crime. He could have been fined up to $50,000 or jailed for up to three years.

Asking for no jail term to be imposed, defence counsel Chandrayogan Yogarajah said that his client, a frequent visitor to Singapore for the past 10 years, was unaware of the regulations.

"He made no effort to conceal the money," said the lawyer, who added that the Chinese national was a man of good character.

But Deputy Public Prosecutor Hon Yi told the court that RWS casino employees had reminded Zhang to heed the regulations on the movement of currency.

In imposing the fine, District Judge Lee Poh Choo noted that such currency restrictions are common in many countries and Zhang had to be aware of these regulations.

Zhang paid the fine yesterday and the money seized from him was ordered to be returned.

A cabby who had left the toilet door open while relieving himself was attacked by a cemetery caretaker for doing so.
 
For beating up the cabby, Soh Hun Seng, 59, was jailed for seven months by a district court yesterday, as reported by The Straits Times.
 
Soh had pleaded guilty to injuring Mr Gan Wee Beng by hitting him with an aluminium broomstick inflicting a fractured arm and a broken nose.
 
Soh also admitted to striking Mr Gan's wife, Ms Kong Lai Fun, who suffered a cut on her forehead.
 
Soh, a caretaker at the Bukit Brown Chinese Cemetery, had been drinking beer at a coffee shop in Potong Pasir Avenue 3 since 5am on Feb 4 last year.
 
Mr Gan, 56, was there for breakfast with Ms Kong, 52, a housewife.
 
At 9am, Mr Gan was relieving himself when Soh walked past the toilet and asked the cabby why he had left the door open.
 
This sparked off a quarrel and vulgarities were exchanged. Soh armed himself with the broomstick and an empty beer bottle. During the fray, Ms Kong tried to ward off the attack with her hands but Soh struck her on the forehead with the broomstick.
 
Mr Gan picked up a metal stool to ward off the blows but one landed on and fractured his left arm.
 
Two of Soh's friends, Chio Boon Hean, 63, and an unidentified man, joined in the attack but Mr Gan was able to break free and run to the carpark.
 
Police then arrived and the victim was taken by ambulance to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
 
Chio, a retiree, was arrested at his home on Feb 9 last year. He has been issued with a police warning. Soh surrendered himself to the police two days later.
 
Pleading for a lenient sentence, defence counsel Raymond Ng said Mr Gan had refused to accept $5,000 in compensation.
 
Soh could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined.

*illustrated photo

A technician who took an upskirt video of a woman on an MRT escalator was jailed for five weeks on Monday.
 
Victor Soliman Gotengco Jr, 33, a Filipino, admitted to intruding into the privacy of the 22-year-old accounts executive at Yishun MRT station on Aug 22 this year, as reported by The Straits Times. A court heard that Gotengco Jr was travelling on the escalator at the Yishun MRT station to the train platform when he took his out his iPhone, activated the video recording mode and walked up to the woman who was a few steps ahead of him. The woman, dressed in a top and skirt, was going to meet her boyfriend who was at the platform.
 
Gotengco Jr positioned the phone underneath the victim's skirt to capture a video recording. Her boyfriend, who had been observing her as she entered the train station through the gantry and took the escalator, saw what Gotengco Jr did and confronted him. Gotengco Jr kept his phone and tried to enter a train at the platform but was detained. The boyfriend sought help from SMRT staff to call the police.
 
Four other similar charges of insulting the modesty of unknown women were considered during his sentencing. He could have been jailed for up to one year and/or fined for the offence.

Media Statement

Mention of Arun Kaliamurthy, 29 December 2013: 

The ICA has imposed a requirement that our client, Arun Kaliamurthy, has to report to them every day in order to receive a special pass to remain in the country. With regards to this, Deputy Public Prosecutor John Lu, has informed us that this requirement is an executive decision that is beyond the jurisdiction of the Subordinate courts.

Mr. Ravi has indicated that such an executive decision violates Article 12 of the Singapore Constitution as this requirement was not similarly imposed on others in the same position as our client. With respect to the learned DPP, Mr. Ravi reserved his client’s position that the Subordinate courts does indeed have jurisdiction to adjudicate on constitutional matters.

Mr. Ravi has also informed the court that he shall be filing an application for judicial review with regards to the question of unequal treatment and the nature of the conditions imposed.

The following is Mr. Arun’s statement which was made to the Straits Times: 

With regards to the requirement to report to the ICA every day, I feel that it is extremely oppressive and unreasonable.

It is also discriminatory since such a requirement is not imposed on others in a similar situation. My counsel has said that such a requirement goes against Article 12 of the constitution which prohibits such discrimination and constitutes a violation of my right to equal treatment.

I am extremely disappointed with the treatment I have received from a country which prides itself on high standards of justice and equality.

L F VIOLET NETTO
101 Upper Cross Street #05-13
People’s Park Centre
Singapore 058357

Two men from China were jailed on Friday for stealing cash from a temple's donation box.

Qin Chaofan, 37, and Qin Zhipu, 31, admitted to stealing $500 from the donation box of Cheng Hong Siang Tng Temple at Arumugam Road on Nov 26 last year. A similar charge involving $38 stolen from the temple two days earlier was considered during sentencing.

Chaofan was sentenced to six months' jail while Zhipu was jailed for nine months after pleading guilty to another of theft of $70 from the donation box at Sultan Mosque on Aug 29 last year. The Sultan Mosque offence was committed with Wei Jia, who has not been charged.

A court heard that the two natives from Guangxi heard that it was easy to steal from donation boxes in religious places of worship in Singapore and had hatched the plan to steal in their hometown.

According to a report in The Straits Times, they were staying in a hotel in Geylang when they made their way by cab to the temple off Paya Lebar Road in a taxi.

When they saw no one in the main prayer hall, Chaofan placed his laptop bag with a slit at the bottom on top of the donation box. He then aligned the slit with the slot of the donation box, and shone a torch light to check if there was cash in the box.

Zhipu acted as a lookout while Chaofan slid a metal blade wrapped with masking tape with the sticky side of the tape facing outwards into the donation box.

He moved the metal blade several times so that cash would stick on the blade. He repeated this three times with three other sticky blades. A total of $500 was stolen.

Zhipu had similarly acted as a lookout when he and Wei Jia stole $70 from the Sultan Mosque in August. Wei had placed a laptop bag on the donation box and pretended to search through his bag.

Both men could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined on each charge.

*Photo for illustration purposes only

A dentist who spent $55,000 on private investigators to spy on her cheating husband will get only $10,000 to settle the bill after a judge described the amount she paid as "unusually large".
 
The 35-year-old had wanted evidence to support a divorce from her 42-year-old husband of nine years, as reported by The Straits Times. She suspected him of having affairs with two women.
 
Investigators caught the chief investment officer "behaving intimately" with one of them, and the couple divorced a year ago.
 
A settlement case was held to determine how their assets would be split, but in judgment grounds released yesterday, Judicial Commissioner George Wei shared the husband's scepticism over the investigators' bills.
 
The total 213 hours of surveillance cost $41,400 - or about $195 per hour.
 
The husband, defended by lawyers Andy Chiok and Loy Wee Sun, produced a source which charged about $400 per day or $6,000 for an unlimited package until evidence is found.
 
The wife, represented by lawyer Foo Siew Fong, spent another $13,600 on "data forensic extraction" from the husband's cellphone and laptop, according to the bills. These produced no results for the court.
 
The judge held that while it may not be fair to make comparisons, the sum of $41,400 was "outstandingly unreasonable".
 
Divorce lawyers told The Straits Times that such fees do not usually exceed $10,000.
 
The judge also questioned if it was necessary for the private investigator to spend 213 hours over 26 days spying on the husband. The main evidence came from just three days in September last year.
 
"Given that the wife relied on the husband's improper association with two other women as the grounds for divorce, in hindsight, there was sufficient evidence on Sept 10 (the first of the three days) to support her petition," said the judge.
 
The judge ordered that the couple's $5.5 million three-storey penthouse be sold, and 75 per cent be apportioned to the husband and 25 per cent to the wife. He based his decision on the respective financial contributions of the parties and the relatively short length of the marriage.
 
The couple cannot be named as they have two young children.

*photo for illustration purposes only

A Starhub advertising director on Monday admitted to two charges of underage sex with a teen who allowed him to take sexually explicit photographs of her, reports The Straits Times.
 
The pair engaged in "bondage and discipline, dominance and submission sadism and masochism'' acts or BDSM in short, the court heard.
 
Kwek Chuan Shan, 35, was an employee of StarHub, when he had sex underage sex with the girl on seven occasions in November 2012.
 
The girl, who was 15 at the time, created an account on a dating social networking website in mid-2012 and chanced upon Kwek's profile in October that year. He openly stated that he engaged in BDSM and that he was looking for a "submissive''.
 
The court heard that the girl initiated contact with him, and within a week of befriending one another, she went to his flat in Redhill Close.
 
While there, she agreed to let Kwek take photos of her while engaging in such acts after he assured her that he would not circulate them. Kwek also had protected sex with her.
 
They met again on Nov 27 that year and she had oral sex with him. When she left the flat, she received the sexually explicit photographs of herself that he had taken earlier.
 
The incidents came to light after a church friend informed the minor's father that he had received sexually explicit photographs of her. A police report was made on Dec 5 that year.
 
District Judge Low Wee Ping adjourned the case to Jan 21. The maximum punishment is 10 years' jail and a fine on each charge.