Pastor Steven Yang Jailed For Lying
Friday, 24th August 2012
A short jail term for Pastor Steven Yang Suan Piau of Eternal Life Baptist Church, after he we found guilty of lying and provide misleading information to an immigration officer at Woodlands Checkpoint. Pastor Yang's lawyer questioned if the Judge had placed previous sentencing precedents "on an altar and obsessively worshipped them?" He also drew similarities to the recent case of Dr Woffles Wu, a high profiled plastic surgeon, who was fined S$1,000 for giving false information to the police about his speeding offences.
On 3 Jan 2012, Pastor Yang had attempted to leave Singapore for Malaysia without the required amount of fuel, or at least three-quarters of the tank, in his car. When asked by the immigration officer, Pastor Yang maintained that his car's fuel indicator, which showed it was three-quarters full, was accurate and that the fuel gauge had not been tampered with. However, an inspection of the car found it had less than one-quarter tank of fuel.
Deputy Public Prosecutor however, said Pastor Yang's sentence was adequate as he had deliberately misled the immigration officer.