Final charge withdrawn for man who duped 3 contractors over fire safety certification
Source: Straits Times
Article Date: 29 Jan 2025
Author: Shaffiq Alkhatib
A man, who was earlier sentenced in court after duping companies involved in the construction of multiple buildings into believing that the cladding he sold them had fire safety certification, has had his final pending charge withdrawn.
A man, who was earlier sentenced in court after duping companies involved in the construction of multiple buildings into believing that the cladding he sold them had fire safety certification, has had his final pending charge withdrawn.
Cladding is used to cover building exteriors. In this case, aluminium composite panels (ACPs) were involved.
On Jan 20, the court granted a discharge amounting to an acquittal (DATA) for Benny Phua Chia Ping’s final charge involving a purported rash act.
This means he cannot be charged again over the same offence.
The 38-year-old Singaporean had been accused of performing a rash act in 2014 after he purportedly supplied multiple units of ACPs, which did not comply with any valid certificate of conformity (COC), to be installed on the exterior of the CIT Building in Toh Guan Road, near Jurong East Street 21.
Separately, Phua was earlier sentenced to two years and seven months’ jail on Sept 30, 2024, after he was convicted of cheating three companies – HB Glass and Aluminium, Mantec Holdings and Nam Lee Pressed Metal Industries – to which he had sold the cladding.
His offences came to light after his then employer, Chip Soon Aluminium, was found to be linked to a 2017 fire at the CIT Building that killed a woman.
HB Glass and Aluminium, Mantec Holdings and Nam Lee Pressed Metal Industries were not involved in the blaze.
But in earlier proceedings, the prosecution told the court: “(The fatal incident) kicked off a chain of investigations by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and the Singapore Police Force (SPF) into the supplier of the ACPs installed there – Chip Soon Aluminium.”
Chip Soon Aluminium was accused of four counts of negligent conduct linked to combustible matter and one count of cheating.
But on Jan 20, the court granted it a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNATA) for all five charges.
This means the company can still be prosecuted for the offences if relevant information or evidence emerges later.
Without revealing details, the Attorney-General’s Chambers told The Straits Times on Jan 27: “After careful consideration of the facts and circumstances of the matter, the prosecution applied for a... DATA for Phua’s (final) charge, and a DNATA for the charges faced by Chip Soon. Both the DATA and DNATA were granted by the court.”
Phua was a manager at Chip Soon at the time of his cheating offences. He was earlier convicted of five cheating charges after a trial.
Deputy public prosecutors Jiang Ke Yue and Alexandria Shamini Joseph had told the court that ACPs are fire safety products regulated by the SCDF under the Product Listing Scheme to ensure safety, reliability and performance standards.
Under the scheme, an ACP supplier must obtain a fire safety COC from a company called TUV SUD PSB before it can supply ACPs to be used as cladding.
The prosecution had said that the SCDF’s probe into the fatal building fire pointed to the ACPs installed on the exterior as having contributed to the fire spreading up the building facade more rapidly.
Chip Soon was then ascertained to be the supplier of the panels.
The SCDF conducted an investigation because of concerns that other buildings that used Chip Soon’s ACPs might also be fire hazards. In the meantime, the police looked into the company’s business.
A police investigation revealed that between April 24 and June 20, 2013, Phua was directly involved in selling ACPs to HB Glass and Aluminium, Mantec Holdings and Nam Lee Pressed Metal Industries.
HB Glass and Aluminium used Chip Soon’s panels for the Temasek Polytechnic West Wing in Tampines Avenue 1.
Mantec Holdings used Chip Soon’s panels for the VDL Building in Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim, while Nam Lee Pressed Metal Industries used the panels in two three-storey ventilation buildings on the Marina Coastal Expressway.
The prosecution told the court in earlier proceedings: “SPF’s investigations determined that when the ACPs were ordered, Chip Soon did not have the required fire safety certification for the panels supplied.
“The fire safety certification had, in fact, been terminated on April 5, 2013, as it had failed two fire safety tests.”
According to court documents, the SCDF also collected samples of the ACPs installed on the exterior facade of each of the affected buildings in Phua’s cheating charges.
Investigations revealed that the panels had failed to meet fire safety requirements.
Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.
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