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Metro scion Ong Jenn to be sentenced on July 12 over drug possession charges

SINGAPORE — The prosecution on Thursday (June 22) called for a three-year jail sentence to be imposed on Ong Jenn, the scion of Metro Holdings who had earlier admitted to attempted possession of cannabis. It noted that he had admitted to the daily abuse of drugs for years and had no qualms sharing and selling drugs to his friends.

Ong Jenn (right), Metro scion charged for drug related offences, arriving at the State Courts with his wife on June 22, 2017. Photo: Robin Choo/TODAY

Ong Jenn (right), Metro scion charged for drug related offences, arriving at the State Courts with his wife on June 22, 2017. Photo: Robin Choo/TODAY

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SINGAPORE — The prosecution on Thursday (June 22) called for a three-year jail sentence to be imposed on Ong Jenn, the scion of Metro Holdings who had earlier admitted to attempted possession of cannabis. It noted that he had admitted to the daily abuse of drugs for years and had no qualms sharing and selling drugs to his friends.

Senior Counsel Tan Chee Meng, representing Ong, argued for a lower sentence of either supervised probation, or if necessary, eight to 12 months’ jail. 

He said Ong, the grandson of department store Metro’s founder Ong Tjoe Kim, had been cooperative with the authorities from the start, and had also embarked on “self-rehabilitation”. 

District Judge Jasvender Kaur will deliver the sentence on July 12. For each charge of attempted possession of drugs, Ong faces up to 10 years’ jail and a fine of S$20,000.

After a three-day trial in February, Ong, 41, was acquitted of two drug trafficking charges last month. He was instead slapped with two reduced charges of attempted possession of cannabis, which he admitted to. 

The charges were amended, after District Judge Kaur found that prosecutors had not proven that Ong had trafficked a block of 92.68g of cannabis and another block of 385.1g of cannabis mixture. 

During the trial, the prosecution charged that Ong had engaged in a conspiracy with convicted drug dealer Mohamad Ismail Abdul Majid to traffic cannabis in 2014. Ong claimed that he had only a “buyer-seller” relationship with Ismail, his supplier, and he had bought the cannabis for personal use. 

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.

On Thursday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Ong Luan Tze said: “The fact that the accused had no qualms about sharing the drugs with his friends puts an insidious spin to the reason behind why he was in possession of such a large amount of cannabis, and is an aggravating factor.”

Ong confessed that he had agreed to pass 100g of cannabis to another person for S$1,100. Considering that he had bought the drugs from Ismail at S$1,000, he was profiting from the sale, Ms Ong said. 

Another aggravating factor was the large quantity of drugs linked to Ong, she added.

However, Mr Tan countered that Ong had been introduced to drugs at the relatively young age of 20, during his university education in the United States, and that early-stage addiction resulted in high volume consumption. 

“More importantly was the question of self-rehabilitation,” he said.

After his arrest, Ong started attending support-group meetings at the Narcotics Anonymous Singapore, and had gone to more than 200 meetings since 2015. He has also kicked his drug habit. 

“Jenn is not a dyed-in-the-wool criminal … the mere fact of being hauled up before the court on drug charges is itself considerable embarrassment,” said Mr Tan.

Ong faces another six related charges, including the consumption and possession of drugs. These are currently at the pre-trial conference stage, and no plea has been taken thus far. 

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