Singapore — A man who was in court eight years ago for his involvement, along with gang members, in the 2010 death of a polytechnic student, appeared in court again on Thursday (Jan 27) on a charge of cheating by impersonation.
Stilwell Ong Keat Pin allegedly impersonated someone else in order to have a car delivered to him on Oct 11, 2019.
Ong, who is now 28 years old, is also said to be involved in other traffic and drug offences, according to Mr Lim Hian Teck, the prosecuting officer in the case. Investigations are being carried out into them.
The accused arrived in court five hours late and told District Judge Tan Jen Tse that he had made a mistake when he looked at the time of the case. The judge warned him that he could lose the $10,000 bail posted by his brother if he were to be late again.
If Ong, who is scheduled to return to court on March 26, is convicted of cheating by impersonation, he could be jailed for up to five years, fined or both.
For his 2012 conviction of culpable homicide, he was jailed for 12 years and ordered to be given 12 strokes of the cane.
According to tnp.sg, Ong was the leader of a gang involved in the death of 19-year-old polytechnic student Darren Ng Wei Jie in a gang fight.
Twelve youths were involved in the fight but five, including Ong, faced the most serious charges. He was 20 when he was sentenced.
The gang fight broke out in October 2010, when two rival gangs arranged a meeting to settle a problem between them, particularly between Ong and Dickson Ng Teck Seng, who belonged to the same gang as the poly student.
The poly student died in hospital five hours later.
The five people charged — Ong (then 20 years old), Ho Wui Ming (22), Chen Wei Zhen (21), Edward Tay Wei Loong (20) and Louis Tong Qing Yao (17) — pleaded guilty on July 30, 2012.
Prosecutors at that time asked for a sentence of 15 years in jail and 12 strokes of the cane, at least, for Ong, as he was considered to be the main culprit in the attack, according to a report from asiaone.com. As for the other four, prosecutors asked for between 12 and 15 years in jail and 10 strokes of the cane each.
The remaining seven accused had pleaded guilty earlier to rioting. Six were sentenced to from four to six years in jail and to between three and six strokes of the cane. The seventh was sentenced later. /TISG