Ex-City Harvest Church fund manager Chew Eng Han begins jail sentence for criminal breach of trust
Former City Harvest Church fund manager Chew Eng Han will start serving his sentence for his criminal breach of trust offence from Thursday. Photo: Koh Mui Fong/TODAY
SINGAPORE – Former City Harvest Church fund manager Chew Eng Han will start serving his jail sentence for criminal breach of trust on Thursday (March 1), after the District Court decided not to remand him further.
This comes after the prosecution told the court that they are not seeking for Chew, 57, to be further remanded for investigations on his alleged attempt on Feb 21 to illegally flee the country. On Tuesday, the Apex Court had ordered Chew should start serving his jail term of three years and four months for criminal breach of trust when he is no longer under remand.
For Chew’s alleged offence of illegally leaving Singapore, the case has been adjourned to March 29 so that the police can complete their investigations. If convicted, he could be jailed for up to six months and fined up to S$2,000.
Chew was supposed to start serving his jail term for criminal breach of trust last Thursday (Feb 22).
But a day before he was supposed to surrender himself to the court, Chew was arrested by the police for allegedly trying to leave the country illegally from the Pulau Ubin jetty using a motorised sampan. He was charged for this offence last Thursday.
Separately, a 53-year-old boatman Tan Poh Teck – who was charged last Thursday for abetting Chew to flee the country – faced another charge for allegedly assisting another man to illegally leave Singapore.
Court documents showed that at 8.15am on Dec 17 last year, Tan had abetted a person known as Shanker Mahalingam to illegally leave Singapore by transporting him using a motorised boat from a beach near the PA Water Venture outlet at Changi to the vicinity of fish farms near Pulau Ubin. Shanker then took another boat which departed for Malaysia.
Tan – who will return to court on March 7 – has been accused of transporting Chew from Pulau Ubin to Malaysia using a motorised sampan. If convicted, Tan could face a jail term of between six months and two years, and fined up to S$6,000.
Aside from Tan, two other suspects have been arrested for abetting Chew to allegedly flee Singapore.
They include Malaysian Khoo Kea Leng, 46, who was charged on Wednesday (Feb 28) and accused of collecting S$8,000 in cash from Chew in the vicinity of Block 75 Marine Drive last Tuesday (Feb 20), as part of payment for conveying Chew from Singapore to Malaysia.
Chew's elder brother, Chew Eng Soon, 61, was also arrested last week on the same day as his brother but was later released on bail.
