Apex court dismisses prosecutor’s bid for benchmark sentence after Brompton saga
Bernard Lim Yong Soon was fined S$5,000 by the State Courts for lying to auditors from the Ministry of National Development (MND) about his relationship with NParks’ Brompton bicycles supplier in 2012. Photo: Ernest Chua.
SINGAPORE — Legal proceedings over the Brompton bicycles saga drew to a close today (April 10) after one-and-a-half years, with the Court of Appeal dismissing the Public Prosecutor’s bid for a benchmark sentence for the public servants convicted of giving false information during the investigations into procurement or abuse of power.
The prosecution’s question was reframed at the judges’ request in February but, even so, they felt it was not a question of law or public interest. The prosecution had asked if a jail term should be the default starting position for convicted public servants who gave false information during investigations into improper procurement or abuse of power.
Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Judges of Appeal Chao Hick Tin and Andrew Phang said the question did not take into account “very pertinent sentencing considerations”, such as the nature and extent of the deception and its consequences.
Answering yes to the question “may well lead to undue hardship or unfairness to the accused in certain cases, which, needless to say, would be a most unsatisfactory state of affairs”, the judges said.
They also did not think it appropriate to obtain a sentencing benchmark through a criminal reference application, which must, among other things, relate to questions of law and public interest.
“A question concerning sentence, which is necessarily fact-sensitive, cannot be camouflaged as a question of law,” the judges said. “The law is clear that a question that is referred to remedy an error of this nature would not cross the public-interest threshold.”
The prosecution had filed the criminal reference after the High Court dismissed its appeal for a harsher penalty for former National Parks Board (NParks) assistant director, Bernard Lim Yong Soon.
Lim was fined S$5,000 last June by the State Courts for lying to auditors from the Ministry of National Development (MND) about his relationship with NParks’ Brompton bicycles supplier in 2012. He had tipped off Mr Lawrence Lim Chun How of Bikehop about a tender, but told auditors that he and Mr Lim began associating with each other only after the tender was awarded.
The S$57,200 deal to buy 26 Brompton bikes had sparked a public outcry on whether NParks got value for money, and prompted the MND to launch an internal investigation.
The District Court had ruled that jail time was not appropriate, as Lim had not provided false information to evade prosecution. His lie did not have material impact, as the auditors did not accept it at face value, the District Judge noted.
Today, the Court of Appeal judges said State Courts sentences may be appealed only to the High Court. “There is no further appeal beyond that. The criminal reference procedure is clearly not meant for that and should not be invoked as a back-door appeal.”
