TOP Lawyer in Singapore Charged With Stealing $1,800 Worth of Electronic Equipment
Really cannot understand what was in his mind when he stole the laptop. He is making 550K Sing dollars annually and he stole a laptop worths of S$1800? Come on, couldn’t he find something more valuable than that? Or his laptop was spoilt and he was so desperate to have it replaced? This is one of the elites that I can never understand what they are thinking.
Taken from LawNet:
Leasing arbitration lawyer charged with theft in HK
[2008] 21 Jan_STTitle: Leasing arbitration lawyer charged with theft in HK
Source: Straits Times
Author: Carolyn QuekLegal News Archive
Choy Chee Yean allegedly stole electronic goods from hotel room
A TOP lawyer in Singapore, who reportedly earns $550,000 a year, has been charged in Hong Kong with stealing $1,800 worth of electronic equipment from an unlocked hotel room.
Choy Chee Yean, a partner at Rajah and Tann – one of Singapore’s biggest law firms – was allegedly caught on film entering a hotel room at the Novotel Watergate Hong Kong last Thursday, and stealing a mobile phone, PDA and a Bluetooth earpiece.
The 40-year-old Singaporean, who was staying at the same hotel at the time, was charged on Saturday, according to Ming Pao Daily, a Hong Kong Newspaper.
Choy was in Hong Kong on a business trip, his lawyer told Ming Pao.
According to the prosecutors who spoke to the newspaper, an occupant of room 1935 at the hotel had not locked the door properly before leaving.
When he returned and found the items missing, the hotel management went through its CCTV footage, which had allegedly recorded Choy entering the room and leaving with the stolen goods.
The police were called in and the items were found in his room, said the prosecutors.
Choy did not challenge these statements, the paper said.
In court on Saturday, he had asked for bail because he has a case in Singapore’s Supreme Court on Thursday.
While the judge allowed him bail of HK$100,000 (S$18,410), he was not given permission to leave the territory.
His case will be mentioned again on Feb 11.
Rajah and Tann declined comment when contacted by The Straits Times yesterday.
But according to its website, Choy is an “experienced arbitration lawyer” who has practised commercial and engineering law in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Ming Pao said that he was called to the bar in Singapore in 1993 and in Hong Kong in 2001.
He was also admitted as a solictor in England and Wales.
He has worked for clients in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Hong Kong and China in “major infrastructure projects”, the website said.
He is also a visiting lecturer in construction law at the National University of Singapore, and has co-authored a book on contract administration.
In recent years, Choy had even been recognised in the Legal Asia Pacific 500 survey on top arbitration lawyers here.
Law Society president Michael Hwang, when informed of the case by The Straits Times yesterday, said that a disciplinary proceeding may be made against a lawyer whose conduct is “unbefitting of a solicitor or advocate”.
Choy is the fourth lawyer in recent months to have made the news for supposedly being on the wrong side of the law.
Last November, Mr Zulkifli Amin allegedly skipped town with about $6 million of his clients’ money.
Two lawyers also disappeared in August and September with a total of $100,000 of their clients’ money.
The biggest case to hit the news was that of ex-lawyer David Rasif, who fled in June 2006 with more than $12 million from his clients, and is still at large.
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I enjoy reading your posts, keep them coming
I will never understand why people with ‘trusted morals’ achieved by their profession wish to make a hippocritical statement by taking items which don’t belong to them.
This is just pure desire to obtain others material objects and should always be regarded with disdain.