In 2014, a Malaysian teacher faced criminal trespass and immigration charges in Singapore when she slipped past immigration officers at Woodlands Checkpoint by tailgating a car. She faced potential jail terms of up to 6 months on her 2 immigration charges and 3 months on her criminal trespass charge. Subsequently, Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) withdrew the charges against her and released her from custody with a discharge not amounting to an acquittal, as reported by Asiaone.com on 1 March 2014 and 17 March 2014.

According to the prosecution, the decision to withdraw the charges was made after careful consideration of the report and all the relevant facts of the case. This includes the results of the offender’s psychiatric assessment at the Institute of Mental Health, which showed that she was schizophrenic, suffered from auditory hallucinations and believed that she was being persecuted when she committed the offences. Just as our criminal lawyer Raphael Louis had stated in Asiaone, the lack of intention (mens rea) in the commission of these offences no longer made the offender culpable for the charge she was facing. This could be a plausible explanation as to why no charges against the offender in this case were proceeded on.

In one of our previous cases, our client was charged by the police for an Outrage of Modesty offence under Section 354 of the Penal Code. He had been diagnosed with a psychiatric condition for several years, and was still seeking treatment and taking prescribed medication for it. Although he was not a regular drinker, he had consumed an excessive amount of alcohol and was inebriated during the time of the offence. Our client’s psychiatrist gave confirmation that the additive effect of the significant amount of alcohol consumed by our client and his psychiatric medication contributed to his poor judgment and reduced inhibition (of which he was previously not informed).

We got our heads down and swiftly drafted pre-mention representations to the police and AGC. Our representations aimed to convince AGC and the police to drop the charges, and issue a stern warning or allow the offence to be compounded. We stressed that our client’s offence was not pre-meditated given his psychiatric condition. Thankfully, the authorities acceded to our representations and issued our client with a stern warning. The charge against our client was dropped and our client and his family were grateful for such a favourable outcome. Our client’s case was disposed of within less than 2 months of employing our services.

For more information, please contact our criminal lawyer, Raphael Louis, at 9090 8288.