SINGAPORE: A former lawyer was charged on Friday (Dec 26) with acting as an advocate and solicitor for multiple clients while unauthorised.
Paul Yong Wei Kuen, 58, was handed eight charges under the Legal Profession Act, relating to four individuals he allegedly acted for between April and July 2018.
He is accused of filing court applications and signing documents that were later submitted to court. These included applications to leave jurisdiction and requests for pre-trial conference dates, as well as documents such as letters of representation and cases for the defence.
For one individual, named Zu Kuimu in charge sheets, Yong allegedly acted as a lawyer on five occasions.
Documents did not state why Yong was unauthorised at the time.
Yong was unrepresented in court. The prosecution sought an adjournment pending investigations into additional charges and instructions.
Yong was the managing partner of Thames Law before he was struck off the rolls on Apr 1, 2020. It is unclear whether he has since been reinstated. However, his name does not appear in the Ministry of Law’s directory of lawyers and law firms.
The Court of Three Judges, the legal profession’s highest disciplinary body, disbarred Yong on Apr 1, 2020 following a hearing arising from charges brought against him by a disciplinary tribunal. The judges set out their decision in a judgment issued that day.
The charges stemmed from two separate complaints.
One involved an illegal moneylending scheme in which Yong approached a former client to make a cash advance to his friend for a purported investment opportunity. The friend was later found to be an undischarged bankrupt, and some funds became unaccounted for, with the “inescapable inference” that Yong had siphoned nearly S$20,000 for himself, the judges found.
“Given the blatant and pervasive dishonesty practised, the unmistakable picture that emerges is that the respondent is unfit to continue as a member of the legal profession,” the judges said.
The second complaint concerned a client firm depositing funds improperly into an office account instead of a client account. Yong also failed to provide a draft affidavit despite being asked multiple times, and later failed to return the funds paid.
Yong did not appear before the disciplinary tribunal but told the Court of Three Judges that he was “ignorant of all that had transpired before the disciplinary tribunal”, according to the judgment.
He sought an adjournment to seek legal advice and representation, but the request was dismissed by the Court of Three Judges as “made in bad faith”.
Yong’s case in the State Courts will be heard again on Jan 23.
If convicted of acting as an advocate or solicitor without authority, a first-time offender faces a fine of up to S$25,000 (US$19,500), imprisonment of up to six months, or both.
Source: CNA
