SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): The boss of an employment agency allegedly wanted her ex-boyfriend to get in trouble and purportedly told her administration officer to lie that the man had assaulted the two of them.
To make it more believable, the female boss is said to have instructed another employee to punch and kick her so that she would have bruises.
As a result, police investigated the case and took statements from the 42-year-old former boyfriend.
The deceit was exposed after the admin officer, Nicole Chng Jin Wen, left the company Raffles Human Resource and recanted the statements she had given earlier.
Despite her efforts, Chng was sentenced to six weeks’ jail on Tuesday (Sept 26) after she pleaded guilty to offences including giving false information to a police officer.
The case involving her former boss Sophia Gill, 52, is pending. It was not mentioned if any action is being taken against the other employee who allegedly hit Gill.
Chng, 28, had worked for the employment agency from March 6 to June 30, 2017. On May 23, 2017, her boss wanted to confront the man, so they visited a kebab restaurant near Beach Road that he ran.
An Expedited Protection Order (EPO) had been issued that same day against Gill, to prevent her from confronting the man and his wife. The order is issued when there is an imminent danger.
Gill and the man were in a relationship from 2015. They started the eatery together but the relationship ended the next year when he learnt she was married.
The end was acrimonious, with both parties making multiple police reports against each other.
In 2017, he married another woman and applied for an EPO. The order expired on May 8 that year and he was granted another order, which was issued the day Chng and Gill turned up at the restaurant.
At the eatery, Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Pei Wei said Gill started shouting vulgarities at her former boyfriend. She also caused a ruckus by kicking over two chairs.
The man told the two women to leave several times and even locked the main door to the restaurant when they refused to budge.
Gill and Chng then called the police. When the man unlocked the door, the two women lied to the officers that he had assaulted them.
Later that day, Gill told one of her employees to meet her and Chng in a carpark.
The DPP said Gill told the employee to hit her, so that she could pretend that the resulting injuries were caused by her former boyfriend.
The employee then punched and kicked Gill, causing bruises on her left upper arm and right leg.
“Sophia also told Chng to memorise a false account that (the former boyfriend) had assaulted them both... and convey this to the authorities,” added the prosecutor.
After that, Gill and Chng went to Tan Tock Seng Hospital. The DPP said acting on Gill’s instructions, Chng lied to the doctor about the incident.
The two women then lodged police reports against Gill’s former boyfriend on May 24, 2017. Six days later, Chng made a magistrate’s complaint over the allegation and the police were directed to investigate.
Chng came clean on July 11, 2017, after her last day of work at the company on June 30. The prosecutor said Gill had withheld her salary until Chng complied with her instructions.
