A man who was high on drugs and desperate to clear his
debts armed himself with a knife and robbed a woman at Mount
Elizabeth Hospital in Orchard Road in August 2008, a court
heard.
Chia Hwa Beng cut himself accidentally on the wrist
while fleeing from the scene of crime and left traces of his blood
on the floor.
For seven years, however, Chia was not identified as
the culprit behind the crime - until police took his DNA sample in
May last year.
On Friday (Nov 11), Chia, now 50, was jailed for 33
months and fined $30,000, after he pleaded guilty to one charge
each of robbery and assisting an unlicensed moneylender.
Chia, who was at first charged with armed robbery,
escaped the mandatory six strokes of the cane for his lesser charge
as he is above 50. Male offenders above this age cannot be
caned.
A district court heard that the robbery victim, a
58-year-old woman, accompanied her mother-in-law for an appointment
at a cardiology clinic at Mount Elizabeth Hospital on Aug 18,
2008.
At about 4pm, the victim left the clinic to use the
toilet.
"At that time, Chia had consumed "ganja" (a street name
for cannabis), and he was feeling desperate as he had large debts
and his creditor was harassing him," said Deputy Public Prosecutor
(DPP) Chong Yong.
"When he saw the victim enter the female toilet on the
11th floor, he formed the intention to rob her and thus followed
her into the female toilet and waited outside the cubicle she had
entered," said DPP Chong.
When she opened the door, Chia pushed her and demanded
she hand over her belongings .
The victim pretended to faint, hoping that someone else
would enter the toilet and help her, the court heard.
As she lay on the toilet floor, Chia pulled at her
handbag, but the woman resisted.
She then saw Chia holding a 13cm long stainless steel
blade.
Fearful, she gave him her $3,000 Rolex watch.
Chia also demanded she hand over her diamond ring. Just
then, a nurse entered the toilet.
Panicking, he snatched the woman's handbag containing
$1,650 in cash, among other things, and fled in a cab. The total
value of the items he took was $5,580. He did not get the ring.
The court also heard that in April 2014, Chia's
vocational taxi driver's license was suspended for three
months.
He picked up gambling and would go on casinos on the
ship three to four times a week to gamble, said DPP Chong.
He took loans from several loansharks in order to feed
his gambling habit and racked up debts.
Two months later, he agreed to help a loanshark carry
out fund transfers using his bank account. In return, the loanshark
would reduce the interest rate on Chia's $5,000 loan, from 25 per
cent to 10 per cent.
Between June and August that year, Chia allowed the
loanshark to deposit money into his bank account, and would
transfer it to other bank accounts as instructed.
The punishment for robbery is between two and 10 years'
jail, with at least six strokes of the cane; and for assisting an
unlicensed moneylender, for a first conviction, a fine of between
$30,000 and $300,000, and jail of up to four years.
ST
The Straits
Times
Thursday, Nov 10, 2016
Open the rear door of a cab to alight and it hits
another vehicle, and you may have to pay for the damage.
A passenger who got out of a cab in a mall lobby
driveway will do just that in a test case settled in the State
Courts on Monday between all three parties involved.
In the case, Ms Amanda Tng, 29, had boarded the cab in
Killiney Road on April 24, 2014, and was bound for The Furniture
Mall in Toh Guan Road.
After cab driver Zailani Hassan, 51, pulled up outside
the recessed drop-off point at the mall's driveway lobby, she
opened the door on the right side to get out, not realising a car
was passing at that moment.
The collision dislodged the taxi door and left the
other car badly damaged with deep scratches and a dent down its
entire left side.
Travex, the company which owned the damaged car, sued
Mr Zailani through its lawyer Ling Leong Hui for negligence.
His insurers, in turn, represented by lawyer Anthony
Wee, named Ms Tng as a third party in the case, seeking to hold her
liable for contributory damage payable.
Ms Tng denied the claims in court papers filed,
pointing out she did not open the door suddenly and the Travex
driver should have seen the cab as he was pulling into the
driveway.
All parties appeared before District Judge Koh Juay
Kherng on Monday, who is understood to have urged them to arrive at
a consensus among themselves.
The three parties agreed to each take some of the
blame, with Travex accepting 50 per cent of it. This halved the
bill for damage, to be shared between Mr Zailani and Ms Tng, who
bore 30 per cent of it.
Her lawyer Tng Kim Choon said the cost of repair was
agreed at $5,900 which meant Ms Tng's contribution was about
$2,000. He said the legal costs to the Travex driver and the cab
driver added another $3,000, which meant her overall payout
totalled $5,000.
He said yesterday: "I hope this case will alert the
authorities and members of the public on a matter which may have
been overlooked."
He noted there was case law holding a passenger liable
if he were to alight at a traffic junction and cause injury to a
third party and the taxi driver was caught unawares.
But Mr Tng said that the past case law had "nothing
similar" to that of his client who was held liable, even though the
taxi driver had not used the designated passenger drop-off
point.
She had to pay almost $5,000 as her contribution for
the repair and for legal costs even though there was no trial. "Had
this case proceeded to trial, I would have taken it on appeal on a
point of public interest whatever the outcome," he noted.
He explained the issue was whether a cab driver owed a
duty of care to his passenger to ensure not only the latter's
safety but also that the passenger is not liable as a third party
for damage to the taxi and the plaintiff's car in a collision.
