Former MP Phey Yew Kok faces another 28 charges
Phey Yew Kok. Photo: Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE — Prosecutors are accusing former Member of Parliament Phey Yew Kok of committing criminal breach of trust on a much wider scale, bringing 28 fresh charges against him today (July 23) involving a sum that is over four-fold that specified in his initial charges.
In the new charges, Phey, who turned 81 earlier this month, is alleged to have misappropriated more than S$350,000 over roughly six-and-a-half years in the 1970s, mostly from registered trade unions that he was serving then, such as the Singapore Industrial Labour Organisation (SILO) and Pioneer Industries Employees’ Union (PIEU).
This amount, which he is said to have pocketed in the form of funds, goods and merchandise, is on top of the S$82,520 he was accused in 1979 of filching before he went on the run for 35 years. Phey’s alleged offences now run up to S$455,000.
Two of the fresh charges today accuse Phey of instigating an accountant to provide false information to a Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) special investigator. He also faces a new charge of fabricating false evidence, as well as one charge for jumping his S$100,000 bail in 1979.
Among the 24 remaining fresh charges, which are for criminal breach of trust committed between April 1973 and October 1979, Phey is accused of misappropriating S$17,693 from the Industrial Accident Relief Fund in November 1978 and pilfering S$9,204 from the Boon Teck Education Centre (PAP Branch) one month earlier.
On four occasions, he purportedly conspired with former managers at the Supermarket & Emporium Division of the SILO Multi-purpose Co-operative Society to misappropriate goods and merchandise amounting to S$211,000.
Including the two counts of misappropriating union funds to buy shares in a private supermarket levelled against him in 1979, Phey now faces 34 charges in total.
A CPIB spokesperson said the alleged offences detailed in the additional charges yesterday came to light after Phey assisted in the investigations that were carried out since he turned himself in at the Singapore Embassy in Bangkok on June 22 this year and was produced in the State Courts two days later.
Phey learnt of the additional charges when he attended a closed door pre-trial conference via video-link today.
When he was first hauled to court on Dec 10, 1979, Phey was serving his second term as the People’s Action Party’s MP for Boon Teck. He was also chairman of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and general secretary of three trade unions — SILO, PIEU and the Singapore Air Transport-workers’ Union.
After he jumped bail, Phey was sacked from these posts and his seat in Parliament.
Investigations revealed that Phey had left Singapore for Kuala Lumpur by train on Dec 31, 1979, and made his way to Bangkok, where he remained at large until last month.
Phey’s case will be mentioned in court again on Sept 3. He appointed Senior Counsel Sant Singh from Tan Rajah & Cheah as his lawyer earlier this week.
If convicted of criminal breach of trust as a servant entrusted with property, Phey could be jailed seven years and fined for each offence.
Fabricating false evidence for use in judicial proceedings is punishable with up to three years’ jail and a fine, while abetment to provide false information to a public servant carries imprisonment of up to six months and a fine not exceeding S$1,000.
Phey also faces up to six months’ jail and a fine up to S$1,000 for failing to appear in court in 1980.
