SINGAPORE: A fishmonger who fled to Malaysia while
on trial for beating a man in 2003 was on Friday given a 25-month
jail sentence and three strokes of the cane.
45-year-old Chua Chai Chuan pleaded guilty to a
series of offences, including abscondence, theft and possessing a
false Singaporean passport.
The offences started in March 2003 when Chua, who
was S$20,000 in debt, turned the tables on a debt collector who
came knocking at the door of his Toa Payoh flat.
Chua cornered his debt collector at a staircase landing and hit him
with a 77-centimetre long iron rod. He also stole his victim's
mobile phone during the attack.
Chua was then charged with causing grievous hurt to 36-year-old Tan
Kok Wee, and a separate count of extortion in 2003.
However, he did not show up in court for a scheduled hearing on 21
July 2003.
Insteady, he fled to Johor Bahru the next day - the same day a
warrant was issued against him.
Chua stayed in Johor Bahru for the next seven years.
In 2008, he was granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal
for the two charges brought against him in 2003, as he was still at
large.
However, he was arrested by Malaysian police in August 2010 for an
alleged offence.
While he was in prison in Malaysia, Chua met a man called "Ah
Peng", who offered to make a false Singaporean passport for him in
exchange for Chua taking the rap for the alleged offence.
Chua was repatriated to Singapore upon his release from the
Malaysian prison in May 2011.
But two months later, he was arrested by the police here after he
was found to have a fake passport in his possession.
- CNA/al