One month jail for Singaporean bigamist

Singapore— On May 28, 2018, Singaporean Ronnie Oh Yin Yan, age 58, married a 26-year-old woman whom he had met on social media in Las Vegas, Nevada. The problem is that Mr Oh has already been married for nearly 32 years.

Mr Oh pleaded guilty to one charge of bigamy, which is a criminal act under the Penal Code. Additionally, his marriage to his second wife is considered void.

He received a one-month jail sentence on Wednesday, May 22.

Mr Oh solemnized his marriage to his first wife in October 1987 at the Singapore Registry of Marriages. The couple have been legally married ever since.

However, he met the younger woman online in 2016, through a social media site. They started dating, and Mr Oh gave the woman money every month for companionship, and also because she started working in his company.

Later, he told her that he would increase the amount of her monthly allowance if they were to get married.

She said yes.

He suggested to her that they register their marriage in the United States, perhaps because he knew his first marriage was still valid in Singapore.

Mr Oh’s one-month sentence was the suggestion of Tan Ben Mathias, the Deputy Public Prosecutor on the case. Upon hearing this, the defendant said via a Mandarin interpreter that he was hoping for a lighter sentence, as he claimed his company needed him.

He also claimed that he had certain medical conditions that included high cholesterol and blood pressure, as well as difficulty in walking.

Considering that the defendant had committed an act that could have landed him in jail for seven years, as well as fined, the Deputy Public Prosecutor told him that his sentence was already “on the lower end”.

Mr Oh also talked about his 56-year-old legal wife, who was present in court along with him.

He said, “I quarrel with her every day.

On my way here I also quarrelled with her.”

After the hearing, members of the press approached Mr Oh’s wife, who declined to give a statement. She merely said, “Don’t ask me. I’m not happy,” in Mandarin, and walked away quickly, according to a report from Channel NewsAsia (CNA)./ TISG