Ong Cheong Wei

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

The respondent solicitor was convicted of two counts of wilful tax evasion under s 96(1)(b) of the Income Tax Act, having made false entries in his income tax returns to understate income for 2007 and 2008. He was sentenced to four weeks' imprisonment and fined $118,341.78 (three times the tax evaded) in the criminal proceedings. The Court of Three Judges found the offences demonstrated dishonesty and, applying the zero-tolerance policy toward dishonest lawyers, struck him off the roll and ordered him to pay $7,000 costs.

Duties found breached:

• Personal probity and fitness to practise

Aggravating factors:

• Offences involved dishonesty akin to cheating/defrauding the tax authority
• False declarations of income over a period of time to evade tax