S'porean lawyer Charles Yeo, who absconded to UK, struck off register of lawyers in S'pore

Charles Yeo Yao Hui, a Singaporean lawyer and fugitive, has been struck off the register of lawyers in Singapore.

The judgement by the Court of Three Judges regarding his disbarment was published on Nov. 28.

Yeo was facing criminal charges when he absconded from Singapore in 2022.

He was last known to be in the United Kingdom.

Yeo had been practising as a lawyer since 2017, and his last practising certificate expired on Mar. 31, 2023.

The Court of Three Judges is made up of Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Justices of Appeal Tay Yong Kwang and Steven Chong.

The trio found that striking Yeo off the roll was the only sanction they could apply as all the charges were made out.

Sanctions for conduct

The Law Society of Singapore (LawSoc) brought five applications against him for sanctions for conduct.

They were regarding Yeo's conduct as a lawyer in matters that were referred to disciplinary tribunals.

Some of the applications were related to migrant workers who made workplace injury claims.

Yeo had failed to directly communicate with the three migrant workers and verify their identities and instructions as he purported to act for them in workplace injury suits.

The other applications were related to the mismanagement of money and accounting records, as well as his verbal attacks on the judiciary and the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) on Instagram in 2022.

It was reported that Yeo failed to show for a Sep. 11, 2022 hearing even after arrangements were made for him to log into the Zoom courtroom.

He then posted on Instagram that he would "spit" on the "kangaroo courts of Singapore" and did not plan to engage with them.

Yeo had boycotted the disciplinary tribunal proceedings, as well as the hearing by the Court of Three Judges.

What judgement said

The lengthy judgement noted and described many of Yeo's behaviour that warranted his disbarring.

For example, Yeo's failings "went far beyond one-off lapses", the court noted, and that it is "uncommon" for a lawyer to be found guilty of breaching all his duties, such as in Yeo's case.

The judgement also added that he had shown himself "thoroughly unfit to wear the mantle of membership in this venerable profession of law", as his "unfitness" is evident by the "clear inability to fulfil the essential responsibilities of a legal practitioner".

The offences that warranted disbarring were due to his "disgraceful online conduct" and his "penchant for assaulting the integrity and impartiality of the justice system".

The judgement also highlighted "his lack of remorse and rehabilitative potential", and "such behaviour is an aggravating factor in its own right".

It was also noted that there has been a "total absence of remorse and contrition for his misconduct", and he has not offered to apologise.

Furthermore, the "misconduct at issue revealed a defect of character incompatible with membership in the legal profession or had caused grave dishonour to the standing of the legal profession".

Yeo was the former chairman of the opposition Reform Party and contested in the 2020 general election.

Top photo via CharlesDAO