SINGAPORE, Feb 27 — Former City Harvest Church fund manager Chew Eng Han should start serving his sentence for his criminal breach of trust offence only after he is no longer placed under remand by the District Court for his alleged attempt to illegally flee the country, said the Apex Court this morning.

This comes after the prosecution called for an urgent hearing to seek a fresh date for Chew to commence his sentence for criminal breach of trust.

Chew, 57, was supposed to start serving his jail term of three years and four months last Thursday.

But last Wednesday, a day before he was supposed to surrender himself to the court, Chew was arrested by the police for allegedly trying to flee the country illegally from Pulau Ubin jetty using a motorised sampan.

He was charged in the District Court last Thursday, and remanded in the Central Police Division for a week to assist in further investigations. He is due to return to court again on Thursday.

Since Chew is in remand for a separate alleged offence, deputy public prosecutor Tan Zhongshan argued that he should not be seen as having started serving the sentence for criminal breach of trust.

Agreeing with the prosecution’s submission, Judge of Appeal Andrew Phang said that Chew’s sentence should commence "immediately upon expiry of such further remand”.

For instance, if the District Judge does not order that Chew be further remanded when he returns to court on March 1, he should start serving his jail term for criminal breach of trust on that date.

The hearing was also presided by Judge of Appeal Judith Prakash, Justice Belinda Ang, Justice Quentin Loh and Justice Chua Lee Ming.

Present in court on Tuesday, Chew, who was wearing a white polo T-shirt, had a stoic expression throughout the hearing.

Chew is the only one of the six former church leaders who have yet to serve his jail sentence.

He was allowed to defer the start of his jail term so that he can spend Chinese New Year with his family.

Last month, the Court of Appeal rejected the prosecution’s bid to reinstate longer jail terms for Chew and the five former church leaders, including founder Kong Hee.

The six were found guilty of misusing more than S$50 million (RM148.50 million) of church funds. — TODAY