Jail for Navy employee who set fire to towels at Hotel 81 after being forbidden to join friend in room

• Lau Sheng Shiun claimed trial to a charge of mischief by fire and was convicted
• He will be appealing against the verdict and sentence
• In 2017, he had tried to stay in the same hotel room with his subordinate and a woman
• A hotel employee later told Lau’s friend that the room could accommodate only two people
• Lau left in anger and set fire to some towels at the back of the hotel

SINGAPORE — When his subordinate in the Republic of Singapore Navy checked into a branch of Hotel 81 with a woman they had gone drinking with, Lau Sheng Shiun entered the room as well.

When a hotel employee told him that the room could accommodate just two people, he left and went to smoke a cigarette at the back of the hotel. He then set on fire four towels in a crate there before walking away.

On Wednesday (April 21), Lau, who holds the rank of captain in the Navy, was jailed for three months after being found guilty of the charge of mischief by fire.

His lawyer said that he intends to appeal against the conviction and sentence.

The Ministry of Defence told TODAY that Lau is now suspended from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).

Lau's subordinate and friend, Chua Wen Hao, was initially convicted of giving false information with intent to cause a public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another person. 

Chua had told an investigation officer that he did not know who Lau was and had not allowed him to enter the Hotel 81 room.

He then claimed trial to the charge on the basis that he did not know the false information he had given would likely cause the investigation officer not to investigate Lau’s identity.

He was sentenced to a 10-day short detention order, a type of community-based sentence where the offender may serve time behind bars for up to two weeks and would have no criminal record upon release.

However, after Chua filed an appeal, the High Court reduced his charge to furnishing false information to a public servant and fined him S$2,500 instead.

WHAT HAPPENED

During Lau’s trial, his defence was that he was so drunk, he either could not form an intention for the offence or had no memories of the night’s events.

Both men had gone drinking at W KTV lounge along Foch Road in the Jalan Besar area on Sept 12, 2017. 

Court documents did not give more details on their employment in the Navy, only that Lau was Chua’s direct supervisor there.

They met a Vietnamese woman at the karaoke lounge and the trio proceeded to Hotel 81 Violet, close to the Bugis area.

Chua and the woman checked into a room and Lau joined them afterwards.

When an employee at the hotel’s front desk noticed this, she tried to call the room but received no answer, so she went up and knocked on the door. Chua answered the door and denied that Lau was there.

A few minutes later, Lau left the room and approached the employee to ask if he could book a room for three people, but she said that he could not. He then went to the back of the hotel to smoke.

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage showed him approaching the crate containing the towels, taking out a cigarette and lighting it while he was right next to the crate.

Right after he turned to walk away, a bright spot appeared on the towels near where he stood. Another guest then informed one of the hotel employees that some towels were on fire.

The damage amounted to S$60.

Lau asserted during the trial that he had drunk four to five litres of beer while at W KTV, and produced his credit card statement showing that he had paid a bill amounting to S$195 there on Sept 7 and 12, 2017. 

However, the prosecution pointed out that the statement did not show if he had ordered alcohol.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Zhou Yihong also argued that the CCTV footage showed that he had no issues opening the hotel door, could walk normally to the lift and was able to spot the hotel room that Chua told him to go.

“It is hard to tell that the accused was even drunk that night, much less that he was drunk to the extent that he was unable to form the necessary criminal intention,” DPP Zhou added.

When sentencing Lau, District Judge Ong Luan Tze warned that such cases have to be taken seriously given the potential harm involved. Fires can become uncontrollable and anyone starting one takes the risk that the “end result could be quite disastrous”, she added.

For mischief by fire, Lau could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined.

The Ministry of Defence said that SAF expects servicemen to abide by the law and those who commit offences will be dealt with in accordance with the law. "If convicted, they could face further actions from the SAF, which may include discharge from service."

As court proceedings are ongoing, the ministry said that it and SAF are unable to say more about the case.