SINGAPORE: Lawyer and opposition politician Lim Tean was given six weeks ‘ jail and a S$ 1, 000 ( US$ 745 ) fine on Monday ( Feb 17 ) for practising law when he did not have a valid certificate.
After the judge granted his lawyer’s request to postpone his word, he will begin serving his prison term on March 3.
Lim, 60, also faces four other fees, including criminal breach of trust as an attorney and immoral chasing, that are pending before the court.
After a test, Senior District Judge Ong Hian Sun convicted Lim in the present scenario in July 2024.
He was found innocent of three counts under the Legal Profession Act for acting without authorization as an activist and counsel between April 1, 2021, and June 9, 2021.
Lim’s riding license was issued solely on Jun 10, 2021.
In the two months prior, Lim conducted or defended jury deliberations on 32 times and organized files or other papers as many times as necessary.
According to Lim’s attorney Patrick Fernandez, the training certificate required that Lim be “authorised to practice as an advocate and lawyer in Singapore during the practice year that ended on March 31, 2022.”  ,
This exercise time, which was from Apr 1, 2021, to Mar 31, 2022, may have captured the time when Lim was accused of acting as a lawyer without license, the army argued.
The defense argued that Lim did not have the intentions to commit the crimes or that he had used affordable care.
Mr. Fernandez claimed Lim had requested if he could still go to judge after making it clear to the Law Society that he did not possess a riding license. He was told he was, but he had to tell the prosecutor.
Lim claimed to have informed the judges about this incident during judge hearings, but that no records of the conversation were made public.  ,
But, Judge Ong determined that Lim had failed to demonstrate how he could have been mistaken in his views and that there was no ambiguity in the appropriate part of the Legal Profession Act.
Ng Yiwen, Edwin Soh, and Bryan Wong, the assistant public prosecutor, were ordered to serve five to eight months in prison.
They argued that the judge’s statement should indicate the need to outlaw “glaring lack of remorse” and signal condemnation of Lim’s “glaring lack of remorse” by the judge’s word.
Mr. Fernandez, the defense attorney, argued that Lim’s actions did not fall within the sentence of imprisonment and that a full great of S$ 4,500 was required.
The judge and the trial agreed on Monday that Lim had not shown any remorse and that his customers were exposed to the possibility of having no remedy to professional liability insurance.
” He had in the operation deceived his clients, other professionals, public officials and the magistrates”, said Judge Ong.
As a prosecutor for many years, Lim should have known that he had until the end of April to renew his practising certificate when it expired on March 31, 2021, and that he would be deemed to do so as an illegal person, according to the judge.
Lim could have been jailed for up to six months, fined up to S$ 25, 000, or both for acting as an attorney without a true training license under the Legal Profession Act.
Lim also stands accused of misappropriating S$ 30, 000 that was entrusted to him between Nov 14, 2019, and Dec 4, 2019.
This amount, according to police, was paid to his former clientele as a settlement in a civil lawsuit involving motor vehicle accidents.
In 2020, he is also accused of harassing a former law firm employee, among other things, by allegedly sending seductive text emails.
Lim recently indicated through his attorney that he intends to challenge these allegations. His event is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on March 3.  ,
Lim is the leader of the Peoples Voice group and the secretary-general of the Women’s Alliance for Reform, a gathering of antagonism events.
In the 2020 General Election, he led a four-man staff from PV that lost to the Women’s Action Party in Jalan Besar Group Representation Constituency.
Lim’s statement does not meet the requirements to be eligible for an MP election.
Anyone who is fined at least S$ 10,000 or jailed for at least one month for a second offence is not eligible to run for office as an MP under the laws of the Constitution.