Woman told colleague to hit her, lied to cops that ex-BF assaulted her after he locked her in restaurant

Shaffiq Alkhatib
The Straits Times
Mar 4, 2024

A director at an employment agency told one of her colleagues to hit her before repeatedly lying to the authorities that her former boyfriend had assaulted her.

Sophia Gill, 53, who is also a shareholder at Raffles Human Resource, roped in another colleague, Nicole Chng Jin Wen, 28, and told her to memorise a false account that Gill’s former boyfriend had purportedly assaulted both of them.

The two women lodged false police reports on May 24, 2017, and Gill repeated similar lies to a magistrate

As a result of the complaints, police officers recorded three statements from the former boyfriend, the court heard.

On March 4, Gill was sentenced to three months’ jail after she pleaded guilty to one count each of giving false information to a public servant and intentionally giving false evidence during a judicial proceeding.

Two other counts of giving false information to a public servant were considered during sentencing.

Chng, who was an admin officer at Raffles Human Resource at the time of the offences, was sentenced to six weeks’ jail in September 2023 after she admitted to offences including giving false information to a police officer.

Court documents did not disclose if any action has been taken against Diangkinay Reywin Bunquin, the colleague who hit Gill. It is not known if Reywin, who was the assistant general manager at Raffles Human Resource at the time, is still at the firm.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Pei Wei said Gill and her former boyfriend, 42, had been in a relationship since 2015, and they ran a restaurant in Bali Lane, near Arab Street, the following year.

The couple broke up soon after, and he married another woman in January 2017.

Gill and her former lover made multiple police reports against each other from March 31 to May 2017 over alleged instances of harassment and assault.

On April 11 that year, he obtained an expedited protection order against Gill to prevent her from contacting him and his wife. The order is issued when there is an imminent danger to the parties involved.

The order expired on May 8 that year, and he was granted another one 15 days later.

But Gill and Chng turned up at the restaurant at around 5pm on May 23, and the former lovers had a verbal dispute. He repeatedly told the two women to leave, but they refused. He then stepped out and locked them in the restaurant.

Gill and Chng called the police multiple times from around 5.15pm, and the ex-boyfriend unlocked the door when officers arrived 20 minutes later.

The women lied to the officers, claiming that he had assaulted them. Later that day, Gill told Reywin to meet her and Chng at a carpark.

DPP Tan told the court: “The accused then indicated that she intended to lodge a police report against (her ex-boyfriend) for assault and told Reywin to hit her, so she could pretend that the resulting injuries had been caused by (her ex).

“Reywin complied by punching and kicking the accused, causing bruises on her left upper arm and right leg. The accused also told Chng to memorise a false account that the former boyfriend had assaulted them both... earlier that day and convey this to the authorities.”

Chng and Gill went to Tan Tock Seng Hospital at about 8pm on May 23 and told doctors that they had been assaulted.

The two women made false police reports against Gill’s former boyfriend the next day. Gill also lodged a magistrate’s complaint against him on May 30.

Her offences came to light when Chng gave a further statement to the police two months later.

The DPP said: “(Chng) recanted the false statements she had previously given to the police and admitted to having made them on the accused’s instructions.”

She added that Chng told the police she resolved to tell the truth after her last day of work on June 30, 2017, as Gill had told her she “would pay her salary once she did as... instructed”.