Ex-City Harvest Church leader Chew Eng Han arrested after trying to flee S’pore by sampan

SINGAPORE — A day before he was due to start serving his jail sentence, former City Harvest Church leader Chew Eng Han tried to flee Singapore by boat.

He was arrested on Wednesday (Feb 21) by Police Coast Guard (PCG) officers with one other person, Tan Poh Teck, while attempting to leave Singapore illegally in a motorised sampan via Pulau Ubin.

Tan, 53, was piloting the boat. It is not known if the two had known each other beforehand.

Chew, the church’s former fund manager, has yet to serve his jail sentence of three years and four months. The 57-year-old was due to surrender to the courts on Thursday (Feb 22), after the court approved his application to defer sentence to spend Chinese New Year with his family.

At a media briefing on Wednesday, the Police said the PCG intercepted a motorised sampan in the sea off Pulau Ubin at about 8.47am on Wednesday. Chew was found on board with Tan, and had with him about S$5,000 in cash and fishing equipment. Among the case exhibits, too, were three mobile phones.

Among the items found on Chew's possession include different denominations of Singapore currency, three mobile phones and fishing equipment. Photo: Nadarajan Rajendran/TODAY

Preliminary investigations suggest that the pair was attempting to leave Singapore illegally from Pulau Ubin to Malaysia.

Their boat was found around 2.4km off the Pulau Ubin jetty, which was where they were believed to have set off.

TODAY understands that when they were intercepted by the PCG, the duo — who were in Singaporean waters — claimed they were fishing.

The police added that it had received information about Chew’s intentions to leave Singapore illegally.

The motorised sampan which former City Harvest Church leader Chew Eng Han was caught on board on Wednesday (Feb 21). Photo: Nadarajan Rajendran/TODAY

Both men were arrested for “Attempting to Leave Singapore Unlawfully at Unauthorised Point of Departure” under the Immigration Act. If found guilty, they face a fine of up to S$2,000 or jail up to six months or both.

Chew, currently in remand with Tan at the Police Cantonment Complex, will be charged on Thursday.

The police subsequently arrested Chew Eng Soon, 61, for abetting the alleged offence at about 3.40pm on the same day. TODAY understands that Chew Eng Soon is the church leader’s elder brother.

For abetting the alleged offence, Chew Eng Soon could be jailed between six months and two years, and face a fine of up to S$6,000.

Commander of the PCG Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Hsu Sin Yun said: “PCG will continue to safeguard our waters and sea borders against crime and security threats, including unauthorised entry into and departure from Singapore”. 

The high-profile City Harvest Church case saw six of its former leaders – including the church’s founder Kong Hee – convicted of misusing S$24 million of church building funds on sham bonds between 2007 and 2009. The money was mainly used to further the pop music career of Kong’s wife Ho Yeow Sun.

Another S$26.6 million was misused to cover up the first amount.

Chew’s attempted escape came almost three weeks after the Apex court rejected the prosecution’s bid to reinstate the longer jail terms of Chew and his other five former church colleagues.

The lower court had in 2015 found them guilty under Section 409 of Criminal Breach of Trust (CBT) by an agent, which carries a higher maximum jail sentence of 20 years.

But the High Court found that an "agent" under Section 409 must refer to "professional agents", who offer their agency services as a "commercial activity" for profit – which the church leaders did not.

The six church leaders had their jail terms slashed to between seven months and 3.5 years, down from 21 months to eight years. Chew was the only person out on bail.