Former PAP Member of Parliament Phey Yew Kok has been sentenced to 60 months in jail on Friday, Jan. 22, after 35 years on the run.

The ex-chairman of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) pleaded guilty to 12 charges, including 10 counts of criminal breach of trust amounting to S$243,877.60, one count of abetting the fabrication of false evidence and another of jumping bail.

Another 22 charges were taken into consideration in sentencing him. The jail term will be backdated to June 23 last year, the date of his remand.

On Friday, Phey, who is married with three children, appeared in court alone, dressed in a white T-shirt and a pair of khaki pants.

When news of his unexpected return broke last year, The Straits Times tried to interview one of his sons, David Phey Teck Ann, only to be stonewalled by his answer: "I'm not able to have a conversation with you.'

His defence lawyer Senior Counsel Chelva Rajah said Phey suffered great hardship and led a miserable life alone in a foreign land.

On the move constantly because he did not have an identity card or passport, he took up several odd jobs such as a pig farmer, hawker and grease traps cleaner to support himself. He had no security, safety and income, and worried constantly about being arrested.

Phey had unexpectedly turned himself in at the Singapore Embassy in Bangkok on June 22 last year. He was brought back to Singapore the following day.

His lawyer said: "He surrendered because Singapore is his home and he wishes to spend his last days with his family instead of dying alone in a foreign land."

Phey is also "very ashamed and sorry" for what he has done, he added. "What he has done is let down the union movement, something which he was wholeheartedly committed to – 19 years of his life from 1960 to 1979 – in building up," Rajah said.

Phey was first charged in December 1979 with six counts of misusing union funds: Four counts of criminal breach of trust involving more than S$80,000, and other offences under the Trades Union Act involving more than S$17,500.

He was released on bail of S$100,000, but never showed up for his next court appearance in January 1980. He spent the next three decades a fugitive.

In July last year, he appeared in court via video link to hear 28 new charges, mostly involving more criminal breach of trust offences he had allegedly committed between April 1973 and June 1979.

In total, he faced 34 charges involving more than $450,000, almost five times the $100,000 in union funds he was originally charged with misappropriating in 1979.

Investigations revealed Phey had fled to Kuala Lumpur by train on New Year’s Eve in 1979.

Despite an INTERPOL Red Notice being issued against him, he disappeared and managed to stay out of reach after he continued on to Bangkok.

Phey is accused of misappropriating funds belonging to multiple unions and companies, including the Boon Teck Education Centre belonging to the People’s Action Party, where he was the MP for the Boon Teck Constituency for eight years from 1972 to 1980.

The 81-year-old is now completely blind in his right eye and starting to lose sight in his other eye due to cataracts. He also suffers from severe hearing impairment and is unable to hear clearly without hearing aids.

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