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‘Lord Voldermort’ insurance agent loses appeal against jail sentence for threatening clients, neighbours

SINGAPORE — Posing as popular fictional characters, such as “Lord Voldermort” — a misspelling of the name of the villain from the Harry Potter series — and The Incredible Hulk’s Bruce Banner, a former insurance agent sent threatening letters and emails to 33 of his ex-clients and their neighbours.

Ye Lin Myint lost his appeal in the High Court against his sentence of 29 months’ jail, for harassing and threatening his clients and their neighbours.

Ye Lin Myint lost his appeal in the High Court against his sentence of 29 months’ jail, for harassing and threatening his clients and their neighbours.

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SINGAPORE — Posing as popular fictional characters, such as “Lord Voldermort” — a misspelling of the name of the villain from the Harry Potter series — and The Incredible Hulk’s Bruce Banner, a former insurance agent sent threatening letters and emails to 33 of his ex-clients and their neighbours.

In one email, he had written: “For the past few months, I have been watching you. I know all about your personal details. I know where you live (obviously), I know where you work.”

Ye Lin Myint was furious that his clients had failed to turn up for scheduled appointments, cancelled policies or backed out from dealings with him, so he sought to take revenge on them.

On Friday (July 19), the Singapore permanent resident lost his appeal in the High Court against his sentence of 29 months’ jail.

The 36-year-old had pleaded guilty last year to five counts of aggravated criminal intimidation and another eight counts of harassment for his acts, which he carried out in 2017. Another 30 counts of similar offences were taken into consideration during sentencing

In dismissing the appeal, Chief Justice (CJ) Sundaresh Menon noted that in his opinion, the punishment was in fact “on the low side”. 

Ye Lin Myint was “preying on his victims’ fear”, and the deliberate steps he took to maximise his anonymity and exploit it was a further aggravating factor, the judge added.

INEPTITUDE IS NOT A MITIGATING FACTOR

Ye Lin Myint was employed at Prudential at the time. He was eventually arrested after his victims reported him to the police, who used DNA evidence to identify him.

On Friday, his lawyer Foo Cheow Ming argued that his client had alarmed a limited group of individuals. He had not intended to spread fear among the public and was merely trying to get even with people whom he perceived had slighted him, the lawyer said.

“He was a keyboard warrior, a techno-nerd who talks with bravado once he sits behind a computer monitor. But in the flesh, he’s as normal and non-violent as an alter ego of comic book action heroes whose names he adopted,” Mr Foo added.

CJ Menon responded that even if Ye Lin Myint did not intend to spread disquiet, it was “perfectly foreseeable” that the public would have been alarmed, given the number of people he threatened.

Mr Foo also argued that Ye Lin Myint had licked the stamps for the letters he sent out, which “immediately defeated anonymity”.

To Mr Foo’s point, CJ Menon retorted that “ineptitude is not a mitigating factor”.

A few days after sending threatening emails and letters to his former clients, Ye Lin Myint came across a news article on the tactics used by unlicensed moneylenders to harass debtors who have not paid up.

He then decided to take a leaf from their book and harass his clients’ neighbours, sending out threatening letters to their addresses. 

Posing as "Lord Voldermort" and "Bruce Banner", he threatened to harass their units and their families if they did not persuade his clients to pay him.

He also sent the letters to the workplace of one of his victims, addressing it to her colleagues.

The DNA he left on the stamps helped the police to track him down.

CJ Menon told Mr Foo: “He left behind traces that let police catch up to him. You can’t say that because when I committed robbery I left fingerprints behind, you should treat that as a mitigating factor.”

Finally, the lawyer argued that Ye Lin Myint suffered from undiagnosed depression during the time of his offences. This developed into major depression in 2018.

In dismissing the appeal, CJ Menon noted that the psychiatrist’s assessment found that it was at most a mild episode that had no contributory link to the offence.

“There really is no doubt he intended to extract a monetary price from (his victims),” the judge added.

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