Fun Huay Yew

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

The respondent solicitor held S$650,000 as stakeholder for Toshiba pending Malaysian proceedings. After settlement, the balance S$635,000 was due to Toshiba but the respondent prevaricated and refused payment, breaching his written professional undertaking. He then gave Toshiba a post-dated cheque falsely claiming the money was in a maturing fixed deposit, threatened to sue when immediate payment was sought, and the cheque was dishonoured ('Not Arranged For'). He absconded with the money. The Disciplinary Committee found grossly improper conduct (first charge) and fraudulent conduct (second charge) under s 83(2)(b). The High Court expressly found dishonesty and deception and ordered the respondent struck off the roll, with costs to the Law Society. The respondent was absent and unrepresented; no cause was shown.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Feigned payment using a post-dated cheque and absconded with client's money
• Blatant lie about money being in a fixed deposit to deceive Toshiba
• Threatened to sue client when it sought immediate payment
• Utilised S$15,000 of stakeholder money to pay Reliance but refused to pay Toshiba
• Absconded and disappeared along with the money; whereabouts unknown
• Did not appear or explain himself at any stage