Lawyer Mr K. Jayakumar Naidu faces a Court of Three Judges, the highest disciplinary body in the legal profession in Singapore. This Court has the power to fine, suspend or order an errant lawyer to be struck off the rolls. This follows a disciplinary tribunal that found him guilty of flouting the basic rules of professional conduct. His client lost S$ 223k.
Mr Hay Choo Soon engaged Mr Jayakumar to act as his lawyer in the sale of his flat. Choo Soon has a neurodegenerative disease and is bedridden in a nursing home. His younger brother, Boo Seng, known to be a gambler, approached Jayakumar in November 2009 for a letter to be signed by Choo Soon authorising Boo Seng to sell the flat and to receive the proceeds on behalf of Choo Soon. In the following month he got the lawyer to draft another letter authorising a sum of $ 46,000 to be paid out of sale proceeds to Tan Leng Howe for payment of hospital bills, which was not true.
At the time when the sale was nearing completion, Choo Soon decided to appoint another lawyer, Mr Wong Chee Mun, to act for him. Mr Jayakumar did not respond to a letter from Wong Chee Mun informing him of the change. He also ignored the warning that Boo Seng needed the money to clear his debts. Instead, he drafted a letter authorising sale proceeds to be deposited into a bank account jointly owned by the brothers.
Two days after the transfer was completed, Boo Seng took the money and disappeared and is said to be on the run and is wanted by the police.
