home 쐽 THE STRAITS TIMES TUESDAY, JULY 28 2009 PAGE B7

Family
Repeat molester gets
6 years and 12 strokes
West on April 28, 12 days after his latest
Lee, nabbed in April, assault on the nine-year-old girl in
Tampines.
had finished a 21-month District Judge F.G. Remedios sen-
jail term in January tenced Lee to six years of corrective
training – a regime for repeat offenders
which does not offer early release for
BY ELENA CHONG good behaviour – and 12 strokes of the
COURTS CORRESPONDENT cane yesterday. The judge had earlier
been told by the prosecution that a doc-
JUST over a month after getting out of tor from the Institute of Mental Health
jail for a series of molestation cases, Lee felt that Lee was likely to commit more
Fuxiang was at it again. serious sexual offences in the future.
Between February and April, the In January, Lee had been released
24-year-old groped eight young girls, from prison after finishing a 21-month
the youngest of whom was aged nine. jail term on seven charges of molesta-
He was arrested at his home in Jurong tion. He had also been caned eight times.
Details of these earlier offences were not
revealed in court.
From the charges laid against him this
time, it was found that Lee preyed on
young girls and attacked them in lifts.
In one case on April 6, he even trailed
a 12-year-old girl from the bus stop near
her school to her home in Toa Payoh.
While he was in the same lift as her,
he grabbed her and forcefully pulled
down her shorts and panties to her knees
before dragging her out by the ankles to
the staircase landing. When she tried to
scream, he covered her mouth and then
kissed her and groped her a few times.
His other victims lived in Bedok,
Tampines and Pasir Ris.
Lee Fuxiang, 24, groped eight young girls, the
youngest of whom was aged nine, between
February and April.
Lee, who was not represented, said
last month that he was very sorry and
that he deeply regretted his actions.
He said he wished to take care of his
parents after his release.
He could have been sentenced to up
to 14 years’ corrective training.
elena@sph.com.sg
maintenance:
Renewed call
to set up body
BY MELISSA SIM
A WOMEN’S group in Singapore has re-
newed its call for a Government-appoint-
ed body to administer family mainte-
nance payments.
The Singapore Council of Women’s Or-
ganisations (SCWO) task force, which
first raised the suggestion last month, re-
peated its call yesterday, saying that simi-
lar agencies in countries such as Australia
and the United States have had success in
getting recalcitrant ex-spouses in paying
up.
At a forum held yesterday, the group
said that studies done abroad have shown
that relying on courts to rule on such is-
sues – as is the case here – gives rise to
several problems.
For one thing, the SCWO said, such a

Monk’s former aide

system wastes judicial resources to deal
with what is essentially a debt-collection
issue.
Such a process is also time-consum-

admits ‘bad
ing, it said, as it usually takes a few
months to get a hearing date: For exam-
ple, one woman who spoke to The Straits
Times said she waited eight months for

habit’ in spending
BY CAROLYN QUEK
SOON after getting his supplementary
credit card in August 2001, a personal
aide to Buddhist monk Ming Yi used it to
buy a Tag Heuer watch that cost more
than $2,000.
Over the years, Raymond Yeung spent
freely on his cards, buying branded
goods from names like Gucci and Prada,
and dropping thousands on hotel stays,
restaurant meals and airfares.
Yesterday, he was queried in court by
both his lawyer and the prosecution on his
spending, which was at times beyond his
means, and a “bad habit”, he admitted.
Yeung, 34, had at least three supple-
mentary cards from Ming Yi, the founder
of Ren Ci Hospital. The pair are accused
of improprieties over a $50,000 loan
made to Yeung that came out of the char-
ity’s funds.
The former steward was asked to ac-
count for specific transactions reflected
in Ming Yi’s credit card statements from
2001 to 2006. He defended some of his
spending, saying that he also made cred-
it card purchases on behalf of the Ren Ci
charity or his friends, and was reim-
bursed for them.
But the prosecution’s contention is
that Yeung was advancing his own aims,
and “enjoying the creature comforts”
that came with associating with Ming Yi.
Deputy Public Prosecutor David Chew
also attempted to quiz Yeung on two pur-
chases he had made, one at a liquor store
in Melbourne and another at a women’s
lingerie shop in Thailand. This led to ob-
jections from Yeung’s lawyer Ng Lip
Chih, who said they were irrelevant.
The judge agreed and asked the DPP
to stick to questions that would establish
general categories of purchases that
Yeung had made.
‘I never took a single cent’
IF HE had wanted to cheat Ren
Ci, there were many
opportunities do so, said
Raymond Yeung, 34, on the
stand yesterday.
But he never did, he said,
even when he could easily have
swiped money without anyone
being any the wiser.
“If I wanted to steal or cheat
Ren Ci’s money, there were
really many other ways,” said
Yeung, who is on trial for
conspiring with Ren Ci’s
founder Ming Yi to take out an
unauthorised $50,000 loan from
the charity to himself.
For example, he had ample
opportunity to do so during the
her hearing.
With a specialised authority, which
records payments and has the power to
trace the whereabouts and financial infor-
mation of the payee, the enforcement
DPP Chew said he asked about the liq- process would be speeded up, SCWO
uor purchase, as Yeung had said in his ev- said.
idence that he had taken up the job as The issue of maintenance has received
Ming Yi’s personal executive “to do attention here since the Minister for Com-
something for Buddhism”. munity Development, Youth and Sports,
“But here he is spending lots of mon- Vivian Balakrishnan raised it at this
ey, buying Tag Heuer watches, buying liq- year’s Budget debate.
uor in Australia, and it is inconsistent Dr Vivian said his ministry was looking
with what he wants the court to believe to strengthen laws to protect parents and
that he’s doing all this because he wants divorcees and was open to ideas from the
to advance the aims of Buddhism,” said public.
the prosecutor, who withdrew the ques- Yesterday, the SCWO said it has sub-
tions after the judge upheld the objection. mitted a summary of its findings on hav-
DPP Chew said the credit card transac- ing government-appointed body to the
tions also showed Ming Yi and Yeung’s Ministry of Community Development,
“close and personal” relationship. Youth and Sports.
Yeung was asked how he kept track of
repayments to his boss on his credit card
bills. He told the prosecutor that he of-
ten made partial payments but would
Ex-mistress takes
write down what he had paid on the re-
ceipts of his purchases. He would also
CEO to court
keep the receipts for what he had bought
for friends so they could pay him back. over maintenance
DPP Chew then retorted: “You can re-
member all the single, minute, little pay-
A 51-YEAR-OLD chief executive of an
ments, but you can forget about this electronics firm and his former Taiwan-
$50,000 payment until Ernst & Young
ese mistress are now embroiled in a
came into the picture.” messy suit over maintenance for their
Yeung had taken the loan for a
daughter.
friend’s home renovations in May 2004 She wants him to pay $5,000 a month,
from Mandala Buddhist Cultural Centre, but he is willing to cough up $2,000 tops,
a Ren Ci-affiliated business. The money because he suspects she would blow the
was actually from Ren Ci. He did not re- money on herself instead of on the
pay it until early 2007, after auditors had eight-year-old.
been commissioned to review the chari- The 43-year-old woman said in her af-
ty’s books. He resigned that year. fidavit that the money was for their
Yeung said: “I did not forget paying daughter’s expenses; she also wants him
back the $50,000. I did not have the inten- to bear half the relocation cost, including
tion not to pay back. It’s my fault for not the rental of her apartment in Kovan and
paying the $50,000 progressively. I al- a car, and the cost of the counselling the
ways wanted to pay back the lump sum.” child now needs to deal with having seen
The court also learnt that Yeung was him beat her mother early this year.
earning about $4,750 when he left his job He said her demands are excessive, but
as a flight steward, $50 more than his Raymond Yeung got at least three supplementary credit cards from his boss, Buddhist monk evidence produced in court indicated he
starting pay at Ren Ci. Ming Yi, that he used to buy items from Gucci, Prada and Tag Heuer. PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM earned more than $1 million in 2007.
His affidavit puts his earnings at less
than half that, or about $38,000 a month.
He said that, aside from his club member-
ships, other expenses, and gifts for his
What’s your place like in Melbourne? three children from his failed marriage,
he was also paying $2,000 in mainte-
nance for each of those children.
Ren Ci Charity Show in 2003 WHEN Deputy Public experience. Mr Yeung, you area, the Yarra River. I The parties are not named to preserve
when he handled the red Prosecutor David Chew are a Singapore PR, you don’t need to go into the identity of the child.
packets given to foreign asked Raymond Yeung if his know life in Singapore. details. The pair met while he was visiting Tai-
celebrities to thank them for house in Melbourne was in Would it (the house’s All of us understand wan in 1995 and began an affair, which
performing in the show. a “choice location”, his location) be equivalent to what I mean by choice. Is it continued despite the distance. Four
The charity’s finance lawyer objected, saying the Queen Astrid Park or a nice place of town to live years later, she moved here, became a per-
department would hand him question was “loaded” and Punggol? So we all get an in, or is it in the boondocks, manent resident and began working for
cash to be packed into the should be put in the proper idea of what choice is. or is it a kampung him in the company.
packets and he would give these context. somewhere far, far away The child was born in 2001, and two
to the artists. More often than years later, he left his wife to set his new
The judge agreed that Yeung: It’s very difficult for from where the action is in
not, they would return the gifts family up in a lavish lifestyle. The couple
the question was not me to make the the city of Melbourne?
to Ren Ci, or more specifically, never got married. Then the relationship
to Yeung. specific. This led to a light comparison. I may be a
soured to the point where she moved out
Prompted by questions from exchange, drawing laughter Singapore PR, but there are DPP Chew: Your honour, I
with their daughter in January, following
his lawyer Ng Lip Chih, Yeung from those in court, many places that I have not am not saying Punggol is a a violent quarrel.
said he would always return the including Ming Yi, who was visited. place that is far from the The woman, now jobless, said she and
red packets back to the in the dock. action. the child are living off her savings and are
charity’s fund-raising DPP Chew: There is a unable to cope without his help.
department. DPP Chew: Let’s bring it tramway in front of the Yeung: It is not located far The case will come up in about two
“I never took a single cent.” down to the Singapore building. It leads to the pub away... from the city. weeks.
KIMBERLY SPYKERMAN

Chain SMSes have one thing work-

$49 in credits? That SMS is a hoax
BY CHUA HIAN HOU
DO NOT forward that text message
which promises you $49 in phone cred-
its for sending it to 10 other people.
It is a scam, say the three telcos,
SingTel, MobileOne and StarHub.
The 47-word chain message – with
spelling and punctuation errors –
surfaced over the weekend, claiming
that the three telcos would reward
cellphone users who forwarded the
message with $49 in outgoing phone
calls.
Some curious customers called
their respective telcos to ask if the
offer was legitimate, said the mobile
operators’ spokesmen. The three
telcos put out a joint statement yester-
day to say the text message did not
come from them, and that no such
marketing activity had been launched.
“Customers who receive this hoax
SMS should simply ignore it.”
The message woke financial plan-
ner Jeremy Tan, 36, from his Sunday
afternoon snooze. “My instinct said it
was probably a scam, so I deleted it
and went back to sleep,” he said.
Within minutes, his wife’s phone
went off too, bearing the same text
message. This prompted him to con-
tact The Straits Times yesterday to
“warn people not to forward it any
more”. He said he did not even check
on its veracity with the telcos because
“it was seriously too good to be true”.
ing against them: forwarding one
costs money, unlike forwarding
e-mail, and it is harder to forward a
text message in large numbers.
Security firm Symantec’s manager
for systems engineering Ronnie Ng
added: “Consumers are also becoming
more alert and less susceptible to fall-
ing for such scams.”
But the president of the Association
of Information Security Professionals,
Mr Gerard Tan, said he believes it is
only a matter of time before the
scourge becomes more commonplace.
It is not known who started this
chain message.