Lim Tean Arrested For Misappropriating Client’s Money & Stalking

Even if you’re one who confuses Pritam Singh with Lee Hsien Loong, you’d have heard of Lim Tean.

The Peoples Voice’s chief is one of the most active politicians in social media—before election day, he posted a video almost every single day, criticizing the incumbent Government.

In the recent GE, he contested in Jalan Besar GRC with Leong Sze Hian, Nor Azlan Sulaiman and Michael Fang Amin, and lost to a PAP team that comprises Manpower Minister Josephine Teo, Heng Chee How, Denise Phua and Wan Rizal Wan Zakariah. Lim Tean’s team garnered 34.64% of the votes.

He has been a tad quieter in social media after the election but is still consistently coming out with long-form videos:

And today, you won’t need to go to YouTube or Facebook to see his name: the name “Lim Tean” is now splashed across all news sites.

Opposition Politician Allegedly Arrested For Misappropriating Client’s Money & Stalking

It all started with this post:

Outspoken and former opposition candidate for Ang Mo Kio GRC, M Ravi, has claimed that Lim Tean was arrested.

According to Mr Ravi, “3 police officers from the Commercial Affairs Department  just barged into the office and arrested Lim Tean whilst he is preparing his case with Leong Sze Hian in his room for next Tuesday’s defamation trial to cross examine the Prime Minister.

“Lim Tean protested when they placed the handcuff on him that his arrest is  politically motivated. I have been instructed by Lim Tean to act as his Defence Counsel. Lim requested that i issue this statement on behalf of him as his counsel.In fact the subject matter in relation to the investigation is before the civil court and I have written to the police to that effect to respect the due process. Therefore this arrest is unlawful.”

With such strong allegations, you can bet that the Police will respond.

And respond they did.

Arrest Not Politically Motivated

The Police has since released a statement and also posted the statement on their Facebook Page.

Lest you can’t read:

POLICE STATEMENT ON ARREST OF MR LIM TEAN

Mr Lim Tean was arrested on 2 October 2020 for an alleged offence of Criminal Breach of Trust (CBT) under Section 409 of the Penal Code. He is also being investigated for an alleged offence of Unlawful Stalking under Section 7(1) of the Protection from Harassment Act.

In respect of the CBT offence, a Police report was lodged by the counsel of Mr Lim Tean’s former client (for whom Mr Lim Tean had acted in a motor injury suit). The former client alleged that Mr Lim Tean had misappropriated a sum of money awarded to him as damages by the court.

In respect of the Unlawful Stalking offence, a Police report was lodged by Mr Lim Tean’s former employee, who alleged that she was harassed by him when she was working at his law firm. The employee also referred the Police to text messages, that had been exchanged between her and Mr Lim Tean.

The Police contacted Mr Lim Tean and issued him with a written notice on 23 September 2020 under Section 21(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code, to attend a compulsory interview on 28 September 2020, at the Police Cantonment Complex, to assist with investigations into the two alleged offences. He was also told that if he wanted, he can reschedule the interview to another date. However, Mr Lim Tean replied through his counsel on 27 September 2020 that he had no intention of turning up for any Police interview. He also made baseless allegations that the investigations against him were politically motivated.

The Police have a responsibility to investigate reports which are made, if prima facie they disclose a basis for further investigations. Persons called for Police interviews must comply.

As Mr Lim Tean did not cooperate with the notice to attend an interview with Police, and had stated clearly that he had no intent to comply, the Police had no choice but to arrest Mr Lim Tean in order to conduct the investigations. This would not have been necessary, if he complied with the Police Notice to come for an interview.

The Police reject his allegations that the investigations are politically motivated. Mr Lim Tean’s alleged victims had filed Police reports alleging serious offences by him against them, and the Police have a duty to investigate the allegations.

About Lim Tean

The 55-year-old lawyer got involved in politics in 2011 when he joined the National Solidarity Party (NSP). In 2015, he became the chief of NSP, but quit the party in 2017 after certain disagreements with the party. He then started his own political party, Peoples Voice, in 2018.

Last year, Mr Lim avoided bankruptcy after a Shanghai businessman took legal actions again him over a SGD$209,000 loan. Mr Lim submitted two cheques before a scheduled hearing to settle the debt and legal costs.

However, before the election, he was once again allegedly involved in two bankruptcy applications from DBS Bank and Sing Wing (I & E), a trading company, totalling about S$1.45 million. The outcome is still unknown.

Do note that these cases have no relation to his arrests, as these bankruptcy applications are civil cases, whereby the arrests are criminal cases.

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