Indian-origin ex-lawyer gets jail for misappropriating nearly $358k in Singapore

Singapore, Jan 26 (IANS) An Indian-origin former lawyer has been sentenced to three years and 11 months in jail in Singapore for misappropriating nearly SG$480,000 (approx US$358k) of clients' money.

Gurdaib Singh Pala Singh, 70, who used to be a lawyer at Gurdaib Cheong & Partners (GCP), continued to act as an advocate and solicitor even after he was struck off the rolls in 2018.

He pleaded guilty last year to two counts of criminal breach of trust involving nearly SG$459,000 and an offence under the Legal Profession Act, The Straits Times reported on Thursday.

A third criminal breach of trust charge involving another SG$21,000 was considered during sentencing.

Singh's bail was set at SG$100,000 on Thursday and he is expected to surrender himself at the State Courts on February 15 to begin serving his sentence.

The Straits Times earlier reported that a man named Zulkifli Osman engaged GCP's services for the sale of his late father’s flat in December 2010, which was sold in 2011 and the firm received sale proceeds of more than SG$356,000.

Between Zulkifli and Singh it was agreed that out of that sum, the former's brother was to receive SG$138,876.50.

Following this, Zulkifli deposited SG$138,876 into GCP’s client account to be held in escrow as his brother’s share of the sales proceeds on December 15, 2011.

However, between December 20, 2011, and May 3, 2012, Singh misappropriated Zulkifli's funds in GCP’s client account by issuing cheques to pay for other matters such as the firm’s office expenses.

Zulkifli made three requests to Singh between August 2012 and July 2014 to withdraw a portion of the money, unaware that it had been fully expended.

Singh then disbursed a total of SG$10,156 to Zulkifli by using money in the GCP client account that belonged to the firm's other clients.

In June 2015, Zulkifli asked Singh to withdraw the remaining SG$128,720 from the funds but the offender failed to disburse any money to him.

After being struck off the company rolls in 2018, Singh agreed to represent a man in divorce proceedings.

The man, unaware that Singh had been struck off the rolls, paid him SG$1,750 between September 7 and 27, 2019.

In 2020, the man asked Singh for a full refund as he no longer wanted his services, following which the offender returned S$1,000 to him.