Yang Yin jailed 6 years for misappropriating $1.1M from widow

(Photo: Yahoo Newsroom)

Former tour guide Yang Yin has been sentenced to six years’ jail on Friday (30 September) for criminal breach of trust (CBT) involving the misappropriation of $1.1 million from 89-year-old widow Chung Khin Chun.

Yang, a Chinese national, pleaded guilty to two CBT charges in August for misappropriating $500,000 and $600,000 from the widow, in 2010 and 2012, respectively.

In his grounds of decision, principal district judge Bala Reddy said Yang’s six-year sentence was “not crushing given the nature of the offences, the amount of monies involved and the specific facts of this case”. The prosecution in the case had been seeking 10 to 12 years’ imprisonment for Yang.

Yang’s latest sentence came on top of the 26-month jail term he was handed on Thursday (29 September) for falsification, immigration and cheating-related offences. This was backdated to 31 October 2014, when Yang was placed in remand.

‘Totally disappointed’

Speaking to local media following the sentencing, Chung’s niece Hedy Mok said she was “totally disappointed” by the “too lenient” jail term that Yang received.

“He stole not only money, he stole all her jewellery and took away her dignity. The fact that he used my aunt’s money to fight her all this while until today… I think justice hasn’t really done very well,” said Mok in a Channel NewsAsia report.

From the time Yang and Chung met in 2009 till his arrest in 2014, the widow’s savings had dwindled from $2.7 million to less than $10,000, reports said.

“The message out to the public now is to look after the old, the vulnerable, the lonely. Because my aunt’s case shows what can happen,” said Mok.