SINGAPORE — A lawyer used more than S$450,000 of his clients' funds to cover various expenses then later acted as a lawyer after he became bankrupt and was no longer entitled to practise law here.

Gurdaib Singh Pala Singh, 70, pleaded guilty on Thursday (July 20) to two counts of misappropriating clients' funds and one count of acting as a lawyer when he no longer had a practicing licence.

Another charge of misappropriating a client's funds amounting to S$21,000 will be taken into consideration when he is sentenced on Aug 24.

In total, Gurdaib misappropriated S$479,876 of clients' funds.

Gurdaib practised law in Singapore between Oct 14, 1981 and Feb 27, 2018 when he was struck off, not long after being declared bankrupt. He owned the law firm Gurdaib Cheong & Partners (GCP).

WHAT HAPPENED

The court heard that sometime in December 2010, GCP was engaged by Mr Zulkifli Osman to provide conveyancing services over the sale of his late father's flat. This included the distribution of the sale proceeds.

The flat was sold in July, 2011 and GCP received S$356,093.60 from the buyer on behalf of Mr Zulkifli who agreed with Guardaib to set aside S$138,876.50 for Mr Zulkifli's brother.

On Gurdaib's advice, Mr Zulkifli deposited the sum into GCP's client account to be held until instructions were received to pass the funds to his brother.

But between Dec 20, 2011 and May 3, 2012, Gurdaib dishonestly misappropriated the funds that Mr Zulkifli had entrusted to GCP.

Gurdaib issued cheques to pay the company's office expenses and other  transactions, said Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Norman Yew.

Not knowing that his funds had been spent, Mr Zulkifli asked Gurdaib three times between August 2012 and July 2014 to withdraw some of the money.

Gurdaib took a total of S$10,156 that belonged to other GCP clients from the firm's client account and gave it to Mr Zulkifli.

He failed to disburse the remaining S$128,720 when Mr Zulkifli asked to withdraw it in June 2015.

In the second case, Gurdaib misappropriated S$320,000 from a company called CH Assets International in November 2014.

The firm had lodged the money with GCP as a deposit for a US$10 million loan it was seeking from a United Kingdom incorporated firm, OCS Capital.

The funds were to be returned to CH Assets in the event that the loan was not provided.

DPP Yew said that between Nov 18 and Dec 23 in 2014, Gurdaib had dishonestly used the money in the law firm's client account to issue cheques to pay for office expenses along with other transactions.

Even though Gurdaib knew that he was misappropriating the funds, he would issue the cheques and record the transactions in CH Assets' client file as an incurred expense.

When the loan fell through in June 2015, Gurdaib was asked to return the S$320,000 to CH Assets.

Despite repeated requests for the money, Gurdaib returned only S$5,000 to the firm a few months later.

On Sept 15, 2015, CH Assets lodged a complaint with the Law Society and Gurdaib was disbarred as a solicitor on Feb 27, 2018, the same day he was struck off.

Gurdaib has made restitution totalling S$58,000 to CH Assets.

PROVIDING UNAUTHORISED LEGAL REPRESENTATION

Sometime in September 2019, Mr Tay Kai Jai approached his mother's partner, Mr Kok Chee Seng, to ask if he knew any lawyer who could provide him with legal representation for his divorce.

As Gurdaib had provided legal representation to Mr Kok more than 20 years earlier, he decided to introduce Gurdaib to Mr Tay.

Although Gurdaib was no longer a practising lawyer, he did not disclose this to either Mr Tay or Mr Kok and agreed to represent Mr Tay in his divorce proceedings.

He paid Gurdaib S$1,750 for his services, said DPP Yew.

Gurdaib prepared a draft affidavit for Mr Tay's use at a hearing to contest a Personal Protection Order (PPO) that was to be filed against him. 

On Jan 12, 2020, after not receiving any updates and having the PPO granted against him, Mr Tay demanded a full refund from Gurdaib as he did not wish to engage his services anymore. 

To date, only S$1,000 has been returned to Mr Tay.

Submissions on sentencing are set to be made on Aug 24.

For each count of misappropriating clients' funds, Gurdaib could be jailed for up to 20 years and fined.

For acting as an unauthorised advocate or solicitor, Gurdaib could be jailed for up to six months, fined up to S$25,000, or both.