Jail terms upheld for 2 lawyers who tried to obstruct justice with message to cigarette syndicate

The High Court on Jan 23 dismissed an appeal by the prosecution for lengthier jail sentences to be meted out to two criminal lawyers for trying to obstruct the course of justice by alerting a contraband cigarette syndicate to destroy evidence.

Justice Hoo Sheau Peng said the jail terms for attempts to obstruct justice – a year for Ong Peng Boon and seven months for Wee Hong Shern – imposed by a district judge in September 2024 are suitably stiff.

She said: “These sentences suffice to send a strong signal that lawyers, who are officers of the court, must uphold justice and assist in the administration of justice. Those who act to the contrary will be sternly dealt with.”

The judge rejected the prosecution’s arguments that the duo were equally culpable and should each have been sentenced to between two years and 2½ years in jail – close to the maximum of 3½ years’ jail under the law.

Justice Hoo also dismissed the appeals by Ong, 68, and Wee, 37, against their respective convictions and sentences.

Ong had argued for three months’ jail, while Wee argued for two to three months’ jail.

She granted requests by both men to defer the start of their sentences, after their lawyers said they want to consider whether to take the case further.

The judge ordered them to surrender themselves at the State Courts on Feb 23, and extended their bail of $15,000 each.

On May 10, 2019, Wee sent a message to Ong, his superior at law firm Ong & Co.

The younger lawyer had just attended a court mention of his client, Selva Kumar Subramaniam, who had been charged with dealing in duty-unpaid cigarettes. 

The message said: “I talked to Ah Boon to update. Basically: Buffalo is busted. Factory is safe for now, but he warns it’s only a matter of time before they find out where it is as they have the SD (card) of Ah Boon’s vehicle.

“They can trace buffalo and find factory eventually. So he said to clear everything from Factory ASAP. Evidence has come out that ST has been paid by China man. His Zello phone was seized, and he didn’t have time (to) delete convos. Bail opened at 55K.”

Wee was accused of sending the message to Ong to alert the contraband cigarette syndicate to dispose of evidence relating to its activities.

A minute later, Ong forwarded the message to a man named Tan Hock Ann, who had hired him to represent Selva Kumar.

Ong followed up with another message: “Delete after read.”

Tan was arrested in August 2019 for dealing in duty-unpaid cigarettes and was sentenced to a year in jail.

Ong, who was represented by Mr Eugene Thuraisingam, argued in his appeal that when police investigations are over, it would not be a crime to destroy any illegal items not found by the police.

Therefore, the destruction of an illegal item would constitute the obstruction of justice only when there are ongoing or potential investigations.

He contended that the investigations against syndicate members Selva Kumar and Toh Chih Wen – the “Ah Boon” referred in the message – were complete when Wee sent the message.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Timotheus Koh argued that subsequent disposal of an illegal item amounts to destroying evidence of an offence of possessing an illegal item.

Justice Hoo concluded that the prosecution did not have to prove that there are ongoing investigations.

She added that while specific investigations into Toh and Selva Kumar might have concluded, there was nothing to suggest that there would be no potential investigations into the syndicate.

Wee, who was represented by Mr Ramesh Tiwary, argued that he did not know what the message meant.

He said he merely sent the message because Ong, his boss, was pressuring him to do so.

Justice Hoo said Wee well knew the contents of the message, and clearly understood that its contents were meant to be conveyed to the syndicate.

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

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