SINGAPORE, Oct 4 — The 45-year-old repeat offender has never held his son, who was born some seven months after he was remanded in January last year.
Now, Chew Guan Mong will miss his child’s formative years. He was yesterday sentenced to 15 years’ jail after he pleaded guilty to 16 assorted charges, plus 24 strokes of the cane and a one-year driving ban.
Chew, who has been in and out of prison since 1994, was handed the lengthy sentence as a preventive detention. This is a severe punishment that is only imposed when the court is satisfied that a recalcitrant offender should be locked away so as to protect the public from him.
Last January, he was arrested following a stand-off with the police at the Woodlands Checkpoint, and has been in remand since.
The court heard yesterday that Chew’s risk of violent reoffending was assessed to be high.
When seeking a jail sentence of no more than 13 years yesterday, Chew’s lawyer, Josephus Tan, pointed out that circumstances are different now since he now has a wife — they married in 2017 — and a newborn son.
Chew’s wife and son were present at the court hearing on Thursday.
“This is the first time in his line of criminality that he becomes a father… A day in prison is a day too long for him,” Tan told the court. “He hopes to come out (of prison) earlier to see his son.”
Tan further noted that Chew had, since his release from his last jail stint in August 2016, secured “gainful employment”.
He worked in telemarketing sales, as a kitchen helper, as a mover for an events company, and a mover responsible for moving ashes and urns from Mount Vernon to Mandai Crematorium.
“Let Chew not be subjected to a crushing sentence which would extinguish any hope of his rehabilitation,” Tan said as he concluded his mitigation plea.
But in sentencing, District Judge Ng Peng Hong said 15 years is a “reasonable period” for the “protection of the public”.
“Of course, it is good to decide on your own good to make a change. Nevertheless, looking at the circumstances in this case… prevention detention is necessary,” he added.
In and out of prison since 1994
In 1994, Chew was sentenced to three years’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane for armed robbery.
His numerous convictions since then included theft, rioting, driving while under disqualification, possession of offensive weapons, and housebreaking.
Chew’s latest spate of offences began on Aug 1, 2017, when he was arrested at his home after being found with a dozen packets containing methamphetamine.
Barely a week after he was released on bail pending investigations, he used a forged driver’s licence to rent a car.
That same month, he was involved in a kidnapping scheme and was arrested again on Aug 20.
His bail amount was upped to S$40,000 (RM121,312.92), but he re-offended just five months later.
On Jan 2 and 4 last year, he splashed red paint on some housing units on the instructions of a loan shark.
Racked up 17 offences in one day
On Jan 5 last year, Chew drove a rented Toyota Camry despite being under a 30-year driving ban from 2004 to 2034. That was the third time he drove a car when he was not allowed to.
Chew went on to rack up more charges that day.
He crashed the Camry into a side wall on the Pan-Island Expressway after side-swiping an SMRT bus. He abandoned the car, then ran across the expressway’s centre divider in the opposite direction and down the slope of a slip road merging into Upper Bukit Timah Road.
Carrying a bag containing a sickle, a long rusty knife, and a bottle of kerosene, he then tried to rob a man’s car by pointing “one half of a (pair of) scissors” at him.
Failing which, he stole a woman’s car which was stationary in heavy traffic by brandishing the sickle at her. He drove off in her car to the Woodlands Checkpoint.
There, he crashed through a traffic control barrier after getting stuck in a motorcycle lane, which led to the stand-off with police and immigration officers.
Tried to set himself on fire at checkpoint
Yesterday, Chew’s lawyer submitted that his spate of offences on Jan 5 last year took place as he was “utterly devastated” after a police officer had told him that his wife was arrested on suspicion that she played accomplice to his acts of loanshark harassment.
He already knew that she was pregnant then, and was “at a loss” at how he was to answer to her parents if she went to jail because of him, said Tan.
Also under the influence of methamphetamine, Chew “gave up on life, on himself” as he went on to commit the 17 offences that day, Tan added.
Chew had doused himself with kerosene just minutes before his arrest near the checkpoint.
He then took out a lighter and tried to set himself alight, but “alas, fate had it” that the lighter could not be lit, Tan said.
“This was the extent of his despair and sense of hopelessness in his drug-influenced state,” he added.
The failed lighter was a turning point, Tan said, as Chew realised that “there are always things to live for”.
“Chew is deeply humbled that their son has taken his surname and that his wife is still standing by him despite all that has transpired,” said Tan.
“These are his newfound meanings to life, and it has taken Chew the birth of (his son) to treasure the love for and by family — something that many take for granted yet was something never shown to Chew since young.”— TODAY
