Already facing 5 charges, lawyer Lim Tean now accused of pocketing S$5,500, not answering police questions

SINGAPORE — Lawyer and opposition party leader Lim Tean was handed two new criminal charges on Friday (Sept 23), on top of several that he already faces.

The 57-year-old — who heads the Peoples Voice political party and law firm Carson Law Chambers — was first charged in May with criminal breach of trust, stalking a former employee, and acting as a lawyer without a valid practising certificate.

He is now further accused of misappropriating S$5,500 paid by AXA Insurance as settlement monies to a person named Christianne Rameshwaran.

Court documents did not give more details, only that Lim allegedly pocketed the money on April 3 in 2020 in the course of his legal work.

He was also charged on Friday with refusing to answer questions posed to him by an officer from the police’s Commercial Affairs Department on June 10 this year.

This concerned a case involving S$50,000 that a person named Lee Peto paid to Lim around Oct 23, 2017. No other details were given in court documents about this case as well.

Lim’s case was adjourned to a pre-trial conference on Sept 23. He remains out on S$30,000 bail.

If convicted of criminal breach of trust as an attorney, he could be jailed for up to 20 years and fined. Those convicted of refusing to answer a public servant while legally bound to do so can be jailed for up to six months or fined up to S$5,000, or punished with both.

Friday’s development brings the total number of charges brought against Lim to seven.

He was initially arrested in October 2020 when he did not cooperate with police investigations.

He then took to the High Court to prevent the police from continuing their probe, but his application was dismissed and he was ordered to pay legal costs.

His unlawful stalking charge relates to the alleged harassment of a former employee in 2020 while she was working at his law firm.

She had complained that he invited her for dinner and drinks at his home and persistently addressed her using inappropriate terms such as “darling” and “baby”, even after she told him that she felt uncomfortable with this. These details were set out in High Court judge Ang Cheng Hock’s grounds of decision.

Court documents showed that he was said to have repeatedly sent "flirtatious text messages" to Ms S Priyanka Aunnucia between April and May 2020, causing her distress.

As for Lim’s alleged criminal breach of trust offence, he is accused of misappropriating S$30,000, which had been awarded to his former client, Mr Suresh Kumar A Jesupal, as settlement of a motor injury civil suit.

This purportedly happened between Nov 14 and Dec 4, 2019.

He also faces three charges of acting as an advocate or solicitor without a valid practising certificate. He allegedly did so on 66 occasions between April 1 and June 9 last year.

This includes a hearing on April 19 over a defamation lawsuit brought by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong against his client Terry Xu, the former chief editor of now-defunct sociopolitical site The Online Citizen.