SINGAPORE: The Law Society of Singapore sought to have fugitive Singapore lawyer Charles Yeo struck off the rolls via court proceedings at the Supreme Court on Thursday (Sep 11).
Yeo, who absconded from Singapore in 2022 while facing criminal charges, was absent for the matter, which was heard before the Court of Three Judges, the highest disciplinary body for lawyers.
As Yeo was also not represented by a lawyer, the case proceeded in absentia.
Counsel for the Law Society, Mr Danny Ong, told Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Justices of the Court of Appeal Tay Yong Kwang and Steven Chong that Yeo had not responded to court notifications or emails forwarded by way of serviced papers, nor had he indicated his participation.
Yeo, 35, remains out on bail in the United Kingdom pending proceedings there, Mr Ong said.
While Yeo had been practising as a lawyer since 2017, his last practising certificate expired on Mar 31, 2023.
The Law Society's five applications before the Court of Three Judges concern Yeo's conduct as a lawyer in matters which were referred to disciplinary tribunals.
Three related to migrant workers who made workplace injury claims.
One of them, Bangladeshi worker Molla Rajib, had lodged a complaint with the Law Society on Sep 6, 2021, after he failed to receive the full sum of his compensation.
Among the charges preferred by the Law Society in this matter, Yeo was alleged to have failed to keep his client informed of the progress of the matter.
Yeo had left a client liaison executive of his then-law practice Whitefield Law Corporation to deal with Molla. The disciplinary tribunal found that Yeo had failed to supervise the executive in informing Molla of the true amount of his compensation and paying it in a timely manner.
In the two other matters involving the other migrant workers, disciplinary tribunals found that Yeo had also failed to verify that the instructions he received from a third party reflected those from the migrant workers.
He also failed to verify that the documents he was presented were executed by the migrant workers. As a result, the compensation money was disbursed to the third party without the workers' consent and they did not receive the whole sum.
For the remaining two applications, one involved his representation of two death row inmates who made a criminal review application to the Court of Appeal which failed. Yeo then filed another application relying on arguments that had already been rejected in previous hearings.
The last application concerns irregularities in Whitefield Law Corporation's financial records, including how funds from a client were deposited into an office account instead of the client's account, and the failure to maintain proper records.
Mr Ong also referred to Yeo's verbal attacks on the judiciary and the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) on his Instagram in 2022.
At the conclusion of the hearing, he said that the Law Society was of the position that there was "no other appropriate sanction" than having Yeo struck off.
This means that Yeo will be disbarred and will be prohibited from practising law.
While it was previously suggested that Yeo should be suspended for a year, the penalty "just doesn't cut it", Mr Ong said, adding that there was a "serious character defect" which showed that Yeo was "unfit" to be a lawyer.
He said Yeo had exhibited an "abuse of privileges" in terms of his access to the court and his handling of client money.
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Yeo, who absconded from Singapore in 2022 while facing criminal charges, was absent for the matter, which was heard before the Court of Three Judges, the highest disciplinary body for lawyers.
As Yeo was also not represented by a lawyer, the case proceeded in absentia.
Counsel for the Law Society, Mr Danny Ong, told Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Justices of the Court of Appeal Tay Yong Kwang and Steven Chong that Yeo had not responded to court notifications or emails forwarded by way of serviced papers, nor had he indicated his participation.
Yeo, 35, remains out on bail in the United Kingdom pending proceedings there, Mr Ong said.
While Yeo had been practising as a lawyer since 2017, his last practising certificate expired on Mar 31, 2023.
The Law Society's five applications before the Court of Three Judges concern Yeo's conduct as a lawyer in matters which were referred to disciplinary tribunals.
Three related to migrant workers who made workplace injury claims.
One of them, Bangladeshi worker Molla Rajib, had lodged a complaint with the Law Society on Sep 6, 2021, after he failed to receive the full sum of his compensation.
Among the charges preferred by the Law Society in this matter, Yeo was alleged to have failed to keep his client informed of the progress of the matter.
Yeo had left a client liaison executive of his then-law practice Whitefield Law Corporation to deal with Molla. The disciplinary tribunal found that Yeo had failed to supervise the executive in informing Molla of the true amount of his compensation and paying it in a timely manner.
In the two other matters involving the other migrant workers, disciplinary tribunals found that Yeo had also failed to verify that the instructions he received from a third party reflected those from the migrant workers.
He also failed to verify that the documents he was presented were executed by the migrant workers. As a result, the compensation money was disbursed to the third party without the workers' consent and they did not receive the whole sum.
For the remaining two applications, one involved his representation of two death row inmates who made a criminal review application to the Court of Appeal which failed. Yeo then filed another application relying on arguments that had already been rejected in previous hearings.
The last application concerns irregularities in Whitefield Law Corporation's financial records, including how funds from a client were deposited into an office account instead of the client's account, and the failure to maintain proper records.
Mr Ong also referred to Yeo's verbal attacks on the judiciary and the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) on his Instagram in 2022.
At the conclusion of the hearing, he said that the Law Society was of the position that there was "no other appropriate sanction" than having Yeo struck off.
This means that Yeo will be disbarred and will be prohibited from practising law.
While it was previously suggested that Yeo should be suspended for a year, the penalty "just doesn't cut it", Mr Ong said, adding that there was a "serious character defect" which showed that Yeo was "unfit" to be a lawyer.
He said Yeo had exhibited an "abuse of privileges" in terms of his access to the court and his handling of client money.
Continue reading...