Bail struck down for ex-China tour guide

Yang Yin will have to stay in remand for at least another three weeks after an order granting the former China tour guide bail was struck down yesterday.

Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon decided the 40-year-old Yang was a flight risk, given that he had little roots in Singapore, and that he had not been up-front with the court about a $500,000 transfer from a wealthy 87-year-old widow's account here to his father's account in China.

Yang, who was first charged on Oct 31, now faces 331 counts of falsifying receipts, which gave the impression that his company, Young Music and Dance Studio, received $450,000 in payments for services such as piano lessons.

The prosecution believes that no actual work was done through the firm and that Yang simply used it to earn an employment pass, and subsequently permanent residency in Singapore.

He was living at Madam Chung Khin Chun's $30 million Gerald Crescent bungalow from 2009 until this September, when he was evicted by her niece Hedy Mok.

Madam Mok, 60, has accused Yang of manipulating her aunt into giving him control of her assets, and is suing him.

Last Thursday, District Judge Eddy Tham granted Yang bail of $150,000, but the decision was challenged by the Attorney- General's Chambers.

During yesterday's 30-minute High Court hearing, Yang, who wore purple overalls, was straining to listen to the Mandarin interpreter as the Chief Justice explained why it was "not appropriate" to grant bail.

The Chief Justice pointed out that when the prosecution told the court last week that it was investigating where a "suspicious" transfer of $500,000 out of Madam Chung's account went to, Yang failed to mention that, on the same day, it landed in his father's account.

In the absence of any explanation for the transfer, it appears that Yang has the means to "live comfortably" if he were to abscond, the Chief Justice said.

He was also of the view that the district judge had erred by failing to take into sufficient account the fact that the $150,000 for the bail was going to be provided by Yang's family in China. That meant that his Singapore guarantors would stand to lose nothing financially if Yang decided to run.

The district judge also did not attach enough weight to the fact that the offences involved are non-bailable ones, the Chief Justice said. That means Yang has to convince the court that bail should be awarded.

The case will be mentioned again on Dec 4, by which time the prosecution hopes to finish its investigations, which include analysis of the suspect's handwriting.

After bail was revoked, Yang's lawyer Wee Pan Lee said: "At the end of the day, the (prosecution) tried its best, I tried my best."

This article was first published on November 12, 2014.
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