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Former entertainment lawyer Samuel Seow has been sentenced to four weeks in prison and fined S$1,500 for abusing his employees, one of whom was his niece, during an incident in April 2018.

Seow had previously pleaded guilty in 2020 to one charge each voluntarily causing hurt and using criminal force in altercations.

Two more charges, one involving harassment and the other being a second charge of using criminal force, were also taken into consideration during sentencing.

What happened in April 2018?

The incident happened on April 17, 2018, at Seow's former law firm at South Bridge Road.

Seow reprimanded his staff, Rachel Kang, an artiste and events executive at Beam Artistes, when she failed to provide a proper account of her work before she left the office.

Angered, Seow forcefully poked Kang's forehead twice with his finger and pushed a file that she was holding, causing her to stagger backwards.

The incident was captured by closed-circuit television cameras. It was also witnessed by his niece, Brenda Kong, a lawyer at Samuel Seow Corporate.

The situation culminated in physical altercations, including Seow grabbing his niece by the arms, pushing her against a table and slapping her several times.

A video of the attack together with the audio recording was uploaded onto YouTube on April 26, 2019.

Disbarred in May 2022

Seow was subsequently disbarred in May 2022, The Straits Times reported.

The top disciplinary entity for the legal profession, the Court of Three Judges, said that Seow's behaviour detracted from his ability to discharge his professional functions.

During Seow's sentencing, District Judge Ronald Gwee said that Seow's case was a situation where an employer had crossed the line and used violence against an employee, CNA reported.

These acts must therefore be condemned, Gwee added.

Seow will begin serving his sentence on Nov. 3. His lawyer had requested for a deferment of his jail term to early November, explaining that his family had a custom of meeting on All Saints' Day (Nov. 1).

For voluntarily causing hurt, Seow could have been sentenced to up to two years' imprisonment, or fined up to S$5,000, or been subjected to both.

As for using criminal force, he could have been sentenced up to three months in prison, or fined up to S$1,500, or been subjected to both.

Top image via Samuel Seow/Facebook