Woman wanted husband dead, plotted with lover to sabotage his car

SINGAPORE — While going through an acrimonious divorce, a woman convinced her lover to tamper with her husband’s car multiple times as part of a plan to kill him.

However, Leong Wei Guo’s actions were foiled when a passerby spotted him behaving suspiciously at a carpark in the wee hours of the morning. The victim’s wife, Amanda Yeo Pei Min was pregnant with Leong’s daughter at the time of the offence.

At the State Courts on Thursday (20 February), the couple admitted to downgraded charges of attempting to cause grievous hurt to Yeo’s husband Walter Ting Yong Chin, through a rash act. Leong, 25, had originally been charged with attempted murder while Yeo, 27, faced a charge of abetment to commit murder.

Leong worked as a delivery assistant while Yeo was an administrative assistant. The couple are no longer together and their daughter is being cared for by Yeo’s mother. Yeo is also divorced from Ting, who was working as a Grab car driver when the plot was hatched against him.

Plan to sabotage husband’s car

Yeo and Ting married in September 2011 and had two children – a son and a daughter – together. Yeo later met Leong over Facebook and the two began having an affair.

In June 2017, Ting found out about Leong and Yeo’s relationship. Yeo then moved out of the flat to live with her mother. In October that year, however, Ting and Yeo moved to another flat where they slept in separate rooms.

“Their frequent quarrels over divorce, the splitting of matrimonial assets and custody of their two children became acrimonious,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor Houston Johannus.

Upset and angered by the situation, Yeo decided to kill Ting as his death would supposedly solve all her problems, said the prosecution. Meanwhile, Yeo also became pregnant with Leong’s child.

After another quarrel in early January 2018, Yeo discussed with Leong how to cause grievous hurt to Ting. She knew that Ting, a Grab driver, often sped while he drove and came up with a plan to sabotage her husband’s car.

Leong agreed to the plan to make his lover happy and to prove he was worthy of her love. Yeo provided Leong with photographs of the car as well as its vehicle registration number.

They agreed that Leong should get a pair of gloves and a mask to hide his identity and avoid detection.

Between 6 and 7 January 2018, Yeo told Leong to puncture Walter’s car tyres and she provided him with the nails.

In the early hours of 7 January 2018, Leong visited the multi-story carpark near the Ting and Yeo’s flat. He found Ting’s car and inserted one nail each into the front and rear left tyres using a pair of pliers.

As he did so, he covered his face with a jacket. Leong then took a photograph of the sabotaged tyres and sent it to Yeo.

Wished for husband’s death

Three days later, Yeo learnt that her husband would be driving to Genting with her in-laws and their two children the following day. She informed Leong and both hoped Ting would get into an accident and die.

Later that evening, Yeo had another quarrel with Ting over the phone. Angered, Yeo told Leong that she wanted Ting dead.

“Out of love for Yeo, Leong agreed to sabotage Ting’s car again,” said DPP Johannus.

This time, Yeo instructed Leong to loosen the wheel bolts and to cut the car’s brake wires. She had watched a video on the internet that showed a driver losing control after the vehicle’s tyres came loose.

Both she and Leong hoped the same would happen to Ting.

At Yeo’s arrangement, Leong visited the multi-storey carpark near the flat where Ting was at in the early hours of 11 January 2018. He brought along with him a wire cutter and a spanner.

After locating Ting’s car, Leong tried to unscrew its wheel bolts with the spanner. When he failed, he instead cut the anti-lock braking system (ABS) wire behind the car’s front right tyre.

A passerby who was parking his car in the same carpark at the time spotted Leong walking around suspiciously with a jacket draped over his head. The passerby called the police and officers arriving at the scene interviewed Leong, who could not properly explain why he was at the carpark.

Officers also found the tools in Leong’s bag and he eventually admitted to attempting to damage a car.

He directed the officers to Ting’s car before he was placed under arrest.

Yeo’s role in the plot was later determined from the message on Leong’s mobile phone and she was arrested a few hours later.

Ting’s car was sent to a mechanic’s for damage inspection where it was found that Leong’s act of severing the ABS wire may have resulted in the car’s front right wheel locking during emergency or hard braking, causing the driver to lose control of the car.

Both Leong and Yeo have not been sentenced and will return to court on 11 March.

The prosecution is seeking five months’ jail for Yeo, who is represented by lawyer S S Dhillon, and four months’ jail for Leong, who is represented by lawyer Thomas Tham.

For attempting to cause grievous hurt through a rash act in a conspiracy, Leong and Yeo can each be jailed up to a year, and fined up to $2,500, or both.

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