Fined $1,000 for threatening to throw lover's child out of flat

SINGAPORE- A man who threatened to throw his lover's eight-year-old daughter out of the window of a ninth-storey flat was fined $1,000 after the judge deemed that he had no intention to carry out the threat.

Unemployed Chung Kam Leong, 57, who pleaded guilty to criminal intimidation, could have been jailed for up to 10 years or fined up to $10,000 for the offence.

Chung had been visiting his lover, a 42-year-old Chinese national, at her Ang Mo Kio flat at 2.30am on Aug 11 when they quarrelled about finances.

He accused her of cheating him, as he had given her more than $30,000. He also told her in Mandarin: "I will throw your daughter down." She ordered him to leave her rented Housing Board flat.

That afternoon, Chung appeared at the Young Learners tuition centre in Ang Mo Kio and told the daughter, who was attending lessons there, that he was going to take her home.

On the way there, he called the woman to say that he had her daughter and that both of them should mend their relationship.

The woman called the police instead.

The charge of abducting the girl was taken into consideration by District Judge Lee Poh Choo when passing sentence.

Defence counsel Lim Kim Hong said Chung had "uttered the threat in the heat of the moment and did not do anything to carry it out".

Mr Lim also told the court that he was "close" to the girl, who called him "father".

Chung has broken up with the woman, who cannot be named as it would lead to her daughter being identified.

He also pleaded guilty to two counts of performing electronic banking transactions for a loan shark and was jailed for four months and fined $60,000.

Five similar offences were taken into consideration by the judge.

Chung could have been fined up to $300,000 and jailed for up to four years on each charge of assisting a loan shark.

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