SINGAPORE — Metro Holdings scion Ong Jenn was sentenced to two years’ jail on Wednesday (July 12) for two counts of attempted possession of cannabis and a cannabis mixture.

The grandson of department store Metro Holdings’ founder Ong Tjoe Kim was acquitted of two drug trafficking offences after a three-day trial but then faced two reduced charges of attempted possession of drugs. 

Ong — a business development manager at Metro — pleaded guilty to these new charges last month.

On Wednesday, District Judge Jasvender Kaur found the defence’s argument for a sentence of probation “wholly inappropriate”, given that Ong, 41, had a “long-standing drug addiction” after picking up the habit while he was studying abroad. 

Ong was initially charged with abetting drug dealer Mohamad Ismail Abdul Majid in the trafficking of cannabis. Ismail was arrested at a bus stop along Jurong Port Road on Oct 30, 2014, with 385.1g of cannabis mixture and 92.68g of cannabis to be delivered to Ong.

Ong was arrested the next day.

Prosecutors had pressed for three years’ jail, noting that Ong had admitted to abusing drugs every day for years. 

They also noted that Ong had no qualms about sharing drugs he had bought among his friends or selling drugs to them.

Defence lawyer Tan Chee Meng, however, argued that his client deserved a lower sentence for cooperating with the authorities since the start of investigations, as well as his initiative to embark on “self-rehabilitation” of his drug problem. 

Mr Tan suggested that Ong should be sent for supervised probation — which requires an offender to meet regularly with a probation officer for six months to three years — or, at the most, eight to 12 months’ jail.

While DJ Kaur accepted that Ong had intended to personally consume the cannabis he bought on the day of the offence, she noted that text messages between Ong and his friends showed a “latent risk” of him “obliging his friends who ran into difficulty in obtaining their own supply”.

During the trial, prosecutors tendered WhatsApp messages taken from Ong’s phone showing at least two individuals asking him to replenish their supplies. Ong admitted that he had agreed to sell 100g of cannabis to one of them.

Nonetheless, the judge said factors in Ong’s favour include the fact that the drug transaction on Oct 30, 2014 was not initiated by Ong himself, but by Ismail. 

She also noted that Ong had pleaded guilty to the amended charges at the earliest opportunity.

Ismail was jailed 22 years and given 18 strokes of the cane in September 2015 after pleading guilty to three of seven drug-related charges.

For attempted possession of drugs, Ong could have been jailed up to 10 years and/or fined S$20,000 per charge.

He will be dealt with separately for six other drug-related charges.

In sentencing, DJ Kaur stressed that drug addiction has a severe impact not only on drug users, but those closest to them and society as a whole. 

She said: “I must correct the portrayal of a drug user as being the only victim of an offence of drug consumption and/or possession ... The blight of drug abuse on society has resulted in the authorities tackling it through a comprehensive strategy of public education, treatment or rehabilitation ... supervision orders, and with mandatory sentences (imposed) on repeat offenders of consumption and possession.”