Prosecution seeks up to 3 years’ jail for Yang Yin on 120 charges
Yang Yin. Photo: Facebook
SINGAPORE — Prosecutors pushed for a jail term of two-and-a-half to three years for former tour guide Yang Yin, who was earlier convicted of 120 charges, the bulk of them for falsifying receipts amounting to S$186,900.
In their sentencing submissions on Wednesday (Sept 28), Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Nicholas Tan said that Yang’s criminal odyssey had spanned more than five years.
“This is a foreign national who has spent almost his entire five years in Singapore either offending or preparing to offend,” DPP Tan said. Yang will be sentenced on Thursday morning.
Last month, Yang also pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal breach of trust for misappropriating
S$1.1 million from aged Singaporean widow Chung Khin Chun. He is expected to be sentenced on Friday for this particular set of charges.
The 42-year-old Chinese national — who has been embroiled in a long-standing legal tussle over the 89-year-old Madam Chung’s assets — was convicted of 120 charges in May.
Of these, 110 charges were for falsifying receipts made to his music-and-dance school to gain permanent residency here, while the others were for immigration and cheating offences, as well as breaches of the Companies Act.
Another 227 charges will be taken into consideration for the sentencing.
Yang set up Young Music and Dance Studio in Singapore in order to apply to be a Permanent Resident, and to have his family from China live here, the court heard.
However, instead of conducting a legitimate business, he falsified receipts for transactions, such as piano tuition and singing classes, between September 2009 and September 2014.
He also deceived an accountant to prepare the company’s financial statements, and made false declarations on two applications for permanent residency, as well as one for his wife’s long-term visit pass.
On Wednesday, DPP Tan highlighted various aggravating factors in Yang’s case, such as the high levels of planning and premeditation involved. For instance, each of the receipts was falsified with care and deliberation, complete with fictitious dates, names, transactions and amounts.
This showed the “depths of his commitment to offending”, he said.
Yang’s offences have engendered public disquiet because they threatened Singaporeans’ faith that the immigration policies are fair and that there are robust procedures and checks in place to safeguard against such fraud, he added.
The offences were also committed against public institutions such as the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority of Singapore, the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, the Ministry of Manpower, the Central Provident Fund, and the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore.
In mitigation, Yang’s lawyer Irving Choh sought a shorter jail term of between one and two years, saying that Yang is the sole breadwinner of his family, is a first-time offender, and had pleaded guilty to the numerous charges before him.
DPP Tan argued that Yang should not be treated as a first-time offender in sentencing because his “clean record” was the result of him successfully evading detection for his offences.
He further urged the court to give little weight to the plea of guilt because Yang had belatedly done so at the final moment before his trial. Yang had taken his plea on the second day of the trial after informing the court of his intention the day before.
“Although this epic tale is nearly at its conclusion, at this final chapter, we still see a lack of remorse, a lack of any genuine remorse on the part of the accused,” the DPP added.
