Man who blackmailed male teacher over affair jailed 40 months
Vincent Ng Hian Gee was jailed 40 months on Feb 15, 2015. Photo: Robin Choo/TODAY
SINGAPORE — A 35-year-old man who extorted nearly S$200,000 in cash and other luxury goods from an older male teacher he had an affair with was today (Feb 15) sentenced to 40 months’ jail and three strokes of the cane.
Vincent Ng Hian Gee, who was unemployed then, had threatened to expose their trysts to the Ministry of Education (MOE) and his victim’s school. He was earlier convicted of one count of extortion and seven similar charges were taken into consideration for his sentencing.
The pair had met through an online web portal TREVVY in late August 2013. In the following month, the victim invited Ng, who is married, to his house where they engaged in homosexual acts. But he asked Ng to leave after a while as he felt uncomfortable.
After that tryst, Ng found out through the Internet that the victim was working as a teacher and started to blackmail him. Ng demanded large amounts of money to “compensate” him and threatened to report their homosexual relationship to the victim’s school and the MOE.
Fearing for his reputation and that he would lose his job, the victim complied with Ng’s demands repeatedly between September 2013 and March the following year.
Among other things, Ng received cash amounting to S$197,000 and luxury goods worth S$51,900 — including one gold pendant, one Rolex watch, one gold chain and four Chanel bags — from the victim.
It was only when the victim was “at his wit’s end” did he make a police report in March 2014.
As Ng had gambled away the bulk of his money, he was only able to provide restitution of S$24,000. He has also returned the Rolex watch, gold chain and gold pendant to the victim.
Noting that the victim had suffered for six months and had his “entire life savings... gouged out by Ng”, the prosecution previously pressed for a jail term of at least four years and for three to four strokes of the cane.
The prosecution also urged the court not to treat Ng as a first-time offender, noting that his offences were aggravated by his recalcitrance. He was not satisfied with his ill-gotten gains and continued to “torment the victim in order to satiate his desire to gamble,” said the prosecution.
In mitigation, Ng’s lawyer said his client committed the offences under “frailty of (his) state of mind” due to his failed attempt at a relationship.
For extortion, Ng could have been jailed up to seven years and caned.
