SINGAPORE: A 30-year-old man who sent sexually threatening emails to his former employer was on Tuesday (May 14) jailed for six months and six weeks.
Tommy Soh Han Xuen was also given an enhanced sentence of 48 days’ imprisonment as he reoffended while out on remission.
He pleaded guilty to three charges of making insulting communication intended to cause alarm, intending to insult another person’s modesty, and attempted cheating. Five other charges were taken into consideration.
The victims’ identities are protected by court order, and details of Soh’s former workplace were redacted from court documents.
Soh worked as a delivery driver for his employer from Apr 29, 2020. He was fired three days later as he was caught stealing mobile phones that belonged to a vendor of the company.
Almost two years later, on Feb 1, 2022, Soh was at home and “feeling angry with himself over his personal problems”, the court heard.
He also felt unhappy that the company had not paid his outstanding wages of about S$300 (US$220) after he was fired.
Soh decided to send threatening emails to the company from his personal email account. In two emails titled “Threat”, he threatened to “brutally rape” all female staff of the company.
“You know who I am. Never pay salary. I am one of your ex staff who stole handphone when doing delivery,” Soh wrote.
The staff member who opened these emails in the morning was alarmed and made a police report.
Later that afternoon, a customer service manager was checking the company’s email account as part of her job to reply to customers’ feedback.
She came across an email from Soh that was addressed to her, titled “Message from beast”. The email contained the woman’s name, and threatened to “strip (her) naked” and sexually assault her.
The woman reported the matter internally and another police report was made.
The prosecution said that Soh’s resentment over his supposedly outstanding salary was baseless, because the employer had to pay the vendor for the mobile phones that he stole.
The prosecution also stressed that the threats in Soh’s emails were “graphic and descriptive”, and that he had previously committed a similar offence of sending a message to insult a person’s modesty in 2020.
Soh also admitted to a separate cheating offence when he was working part-time at W Singapore – Sentosa Cove in 2022.
On Jun 24, 2022, two hotel guests left their credit cards on a table by the swimming pool for the staff to charge them for their drinks, and went into the pool.
Soh, who was assigned to clear tables at the time, used his phone to take photos of their credit card details.
One of the guests whose card was on the table saw this and came out of the pool to confront Soh, but he nervously denied taking any photo and left.
The next day, one of the two guests received a fraud alert message from her bank when Soh used her card to buy a pair of sneakers that cost about S$450 online.
The guest immediately asked the bank to cancel the transaction.
Investigations revealed that Soh was the person responsible, and had also bought another pair of shoes that cost around S$260. Both transactions were cancelled in time.
During the hearing, Soh asked District Judge Wong Li Tein for a lenient sentence and said that his offences were related to his gambling problem.
He recalled that before his first incarceration for his previous offences, he had told the court he would learn his lesson.
“But sadly, I didn’t,” he admitted. “I don’t think I can take this hit any more if it happens a third time,” Soh said, referring to a third incarceration in the future.
He told the judge that he intended to re-enrol in polytechnic after completing this sentence to “restart my entire life”.
In sentencing, Judge Wong described Soh as a “recalcitrant offender”, but also noted his early plea of guilt.
