Man who paid S$6,000 for fake vaccination records appeals jail term, accuses judge of having 'closed mind'

SINGAPORE: A man who paid S$6,000 for fake vaccination records for his wife and himself appealed to halve his 16-week jail term on Friday (Aug 4).

Australian national David Christopher Newton, 44, has since served his sentence and left Singapore, but appealed through his lawyer Paul Loy from WongPartnership, at the High Court and before Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon. 

Mr Loy said he had been instructed to bring the appeal because his client "couldn't help but feel that did not get a fair hearing below", referring to proceedings in the lower courts.  

Newton had been sentenced to 16 weeks' jail by the State Courts in April. He pleaded guilty to one charge of being party to a criminal conspiracy with registered medical practitioner Jipson Quah and Quah's assistant Thomas Chua Cheng Soon, to cheat the Health Promotion Board (HPB) that he was fully vaccinated against COVID-19 when he was not.

Another charge involving his wife was taken into consideration. 

To date, Newton is the only patient of Quah's that has been charged, but the prosecution told the High Court on Friday that it intends to charge others, subject to developments in investigations or evidence produced. 

Deputy Public Prosecutor Jiang Ke-Yue said the plan had been to deal with the main perpetrators of the case, but that delays arose. Newton's case had some urgency as he was the only patient who had applied to leave Singapore. 

The cases of Quah and Chua are pending. 

WANTED TO RETURN HOME

Newton and his wife received two injections that were recorded in Singapore's National Immunisation Registry as Sinopharm COVID-19 jabs, even though they contained just saline. Newton's wife had been unaware of the ruse.

Quah was linked to anti-vaccination group Healing the Divide, while Chua worked as his logistics supervisor.

Newton joined the Healing the Divide group on Telegram around December 2021, and obtained Chua's contact number from there.

He told Chua he had a job offer in Australia, but that he would face significant difficulty entering the country as he was unvaccinated. He asked if he could get certified as vaccinated, without taking the jab. He also wanted his wife to be certified as being medically ineligible to receive any COVID-19 vaccine.

Chua said he would consult Quah, and later arranged for the couple to get fake vaccines at Mayfair Medical Clinic in Yishun for S$6,000.

Newton agreed, and the pair received saline injections over two days - Dec 29, 2021 and Jan 15, 2022. The wife thought she had received the Sinopharm vaccine.

According to investigations, Newton was one of at least 17 such patients who received saline injections from Quah.

"APPEARANCE OF BIAS"

During a Zoom hearing for the appeal, in which Newton was absent, his lawyer Mr Loy sought to have the jail term reduced to eight weeks. 

Mr Loy argued that the district judge who sentenced Newton in the lower courts had "an appearance of bias", from the manner in which the hearing was conducted, the grounds prepared in advance and the contents of the grounds delivered. 

"I'm saying the judge appeared to have a closed mind and from the fact that grounds of decision are largely replicated prosecution written submissions, he did in fact have a closed mind, and the consequence of that sir, is that the district judge essentially accepted the prosecution's arguments," said Mr Loy.

The district judge had taken the prosecution's position in its entirety and dismissed the mitigation put forth by the defence in its entirety, handing out the sentence the prosecution sought, Mr Loy argued. 

Chief Justice Menon rejected this argument. Just because a judge had seen written submissions and came to a view before a hearing did not mean he was biased, said the Chief Justice. 

The question was whether the judge had applied his mind "judiciously".

"When I read through the notes of evidence and what went on at the hearing, I have to say it's clear to me the district judge fully digested the material, " added the Chief Justice.

"There is something to be said about the judge coming to a hearing fully prepared, read and digested the material before him and coming to provisional views."

He said it was not an unusual practice in court and did not mean the judge had a closed mind. 

The Chief Justice also pointed out that the judge had rearranged portions he had taken from the prosecution, to express his position. 

LOW HARM CAUSED

Mr Loy also argued that the harm caused by his client's actions was "low" at best. 

"The fact of the matter is that (the contact tracing TraceTogether app) was never updated to show Mr Newton was fully vaccinated and that is what we say is primarily relevant because it's that updating that would have allowed Mr Newton to wrongfully access (Vaccination-Differentiated Safe Management Measures) locations," said Mr Loy. 

Chief Justice Menon responded that this argument did not help his case, and that the app was not updated for Newton simply because the fraud had been exposed.

"If you engaged in fraud, it doesn't help to say I was caught before I got away with it, that's not a mitigating factor," said the judge. 

Chief Justice Menon accepted, however, that the level of harm had been on the "low side".

He had earlier asked if there had been evidence to show that harm had been sustained by the Health Promotion Board. The prosecution accepted that no actual harm had been caused to the statutory board, but that likely harm could have been caused to its reputation. 

Chief Justice Menon said he understood the prosecution's point, but maintained it was "quite remote and distant". 

Mr Loy's other points included how strong media interest did not mean that there had been strong public disquiet, and also that Newton had not conceived the scheme. 

To these, Chief Justice Menon said the element of public disquiet did not need specific proof given the circumstances of the pandemic then. 

"A year to a year-and-a-half ago we were not be able to do things we took for granted and it did cause consternation, anxiety, fear ... We all had to live very truncated lifestyles because of restrictions in place," said the Chief Justice.

If it emerged that someone had gone to some lengths to avoid the restrictions by getting fake certification, to do things others could not, the public would be "pretty upset", he noted.

Mr Loy then argued that Newton had received a measure of punishment as he was stuck in Singapore without work for one-and-a-half years, and that his child could not go to school as his Employment Pass had been revoked for a Special Pass. 

But Chief Justice Menon said he was not "moved" by this argument. 

The judge also questioned how the 16-week jail term proposed by the prosecution was derived, stating it was unclear in submissions and in the judgement from the lower courts. 

In its appeal submissions, the prosecution cited the need for deterrence; the premeditated and sophisticated nature of the appellant’s offence; the difficulty of detecting Newton's offence and how he had been a willing and active co-conspirator, among reasons for the 16-week sentence. 

Addressing the prosecution's point about the scheme being sophisticated, Chief Justice Menon said this "cannot be laid at the door of Mr Newton", who had simply acted on a tip.

Chief Justice Menon will give his judgement at a later date.