A 6-month-old infant was previously reported to have died after being found lying motionless and face down in the playpen at the nanny’s house – he had fallen asleep there earlier in the afternoon.

The parents were notified of what happened and they rushed the infant to the hospital but he had already stopped breathing upon reaching the hospital.

The case of the baby’s death was heard in the coroner’s court yesterday (27 March), with the infant’s parents Mr Yong Chen Seng and Madam Toh Jing Lay in attendance.

What happened?

According to the investigation officer in charge of the case, the nanny had fed the baby and put him to sleep inside the playpen on 28 December 2021 at about 3 pm.

She then returned at about 6.20 pm to retrieve and shower the baby but found him motionless and lying face-down at the corner of the mattress.

She realised the baby had turned blue and didn’t respond when she tried carrying him and got her son to call for an ambulance.

She was told by the 995 operator to perform CPF on the infant until paramedics arrived.

3 paramedics later arrived at the scene, with two of the concluding that the baby’s body had already turned cold, but the third paramedic felt some warmth in the baby and he was then brought to Sengkang General Hospital.

But despite resuscitation efforts, the baby was subsequently pronounced dead that night.

The investigation officer said that the nanny had left the home before the baby was found and had allegedly left the baby and another child under her care, to her 13 year old son.

But there was no evidence to suggest that her 13-year-old son had left his room to check on the two children while she was away.

The deceased baby’s mother, Madam Toh, said that her son had been in the care of the nanny since he was 3-months old, and the nanny had a habit of letting him sleep face down.

Thinking that the nanny had more experience because she had children of her own, Madam Toh went along with letting the nanny let the baby sleep face down.

The investigation office couldn’t confirm if that was how the baby slept on the day that he died.

Madam Toh also added that her son would only sleep for about an hour while at home, but the nanny said that he slept for about 3 to 4 hours at her place.

The nanny also didn’t enter the room where the baby was sleeping at the time of his death because she said the baby usually slept for 3 to 4 hours, meaning that no one checked on the baby for 3 hours while he was inside the room.

The nanny also suspected that the baby had asthma and allegedly fed him asthma medication (1ml of Zenmolin) on 26 December 2021 without the approval of the child’s parents.

Singapore has been seeing an increase in the number of weekly covid vases in the 2 weeks leading up to 18 March, with the number of cases exceeding 10,000, which is more than double for the previous two weeks before that saw less than 4,500 cases weekly.

The Singapore Ministry of Health (MOH) has come out and allayed concerns on 27 March, saying that the current rise in cases is not causing a strain on our healthcare capacity.

MOH said that new infection waves occur periodically and they will continue to monitor the local situation and look out for the emergency of any new variants.

They also added that they are also monitoring the severity and potential impact on our healthcare system.

According to MOH, the number of infections is estimated based on the National Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) Surveillance Programme, which includes the average number of ARI attendances at polyclinics daily, which was 2,592 cases from 12 March to 18 March and 2,823 in the previous week.

Minister of Health Ong Ye Kung also touched about the subject, replying to a comment on his Instagram, saying that “important thing is severity of symptoms. Today, number of COVID-19-related hospitalisations is very low, and far lower than non-COVID-19-related infections. So we can treat COVID-19 as an endemic disease, but we will continue to monitor closely to make sure we stay on the right track.”

As of 26 March this year, there have also been no cases of the XBB.1.16 variant detected here in Singapore, according to MOH.

The XBB.1.16 is the predominant subvariant of Omicron reported in India.

MOH said that there is currently no evidence internationally that XBB.1.16 exhibits greater transmissibility or severity than previously identified subvariants, and the subvariants that are currently detected in Singapore are the XBB.1.5 and XBB.1.9, that were detected here in late December last year and mid January earlier this year.

POLICE INVESTIGATE 409 SCAMMERS AND MONEY MULES IN AN ISLAND-WIDE ENFORCEMENT OPERATION

Officers from the Commercial Affairs Department and the seven Police Land Divisions conducted a two-week operation between 10 March 2023 and 23 March 2023.

A total of 275 men and 134 women, aged between 16 and 80, are assisting in investigations for their suspected involvement in scams as scammers or money mules.

The suspects are believed to be involved in more than 1,053 cases of scams, comprising mainly investment scams, e-commerce scams, phishing scams, job scams, internet love scams and Government Officials impersonation scams, where victims reportedly lost over $10.9 million.

The suspects are being investigated for the alleged offences of cheating, money laundering or providing payment services without a licence.

The offence of cheating under Section 420 of the Penal Code 1871 carries an imprisonment term of up to 10 years and a fine.

The offence of money laundering under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act 1992 carries an imprisonment term of up to 10 years, a fine of up to $500,000, or both.

The offence of carrying on a business to provide any type of payment service in Singapore without a licence under Section 5 of the Payment Services Act 2019 carries a fine of up to $125,000, an imprisonment term of up to three years, or both.

The Police take a serious stance against any person who may be involved in scams, and perpetrators will be dealt with in accordance with the law.

To avoid being an accomplice to crimes, members of the public should always reject requests by others to use your bank account or mobile lines as you will be held accountable if these are linked to crimes.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
26 March 2023 @ 1:00 PM

A 29-year-old Chinese national, Wang Xin, faced 5 charges that included two counts each of cheating and dealing with the benefits of criminal conduct, she was also charged with providing false information to a Singapore police officer, according to The Straits Times.

She is allegedly linked to a China officials impersonation scam and cheated 2 victims of at least $40,000 by posing as an “Interpol special agent”.

She had allegedly pretended to be the “special agent” on 23 April 2021 to cheat a victim of $40,000, as well as scamming another victim into handing over their iBanking token and mobile phone using the same method, from between 28 April to 3 May 2021.

Wang allegedly transferred her illegal gains which amounted to about $315,000 to a bank account from 26 April to 3 May 2021, with the money believed to be another person’s benefits from cheating.

She is also being charged with allegedly giving false information to a police officer at the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force on 29 March 2021.

The Singapore Police Force said in a statement yesterday evening that their officers received a report on 25 March 2021 from an alleged victim, who was cheated into transferring $10,000 to a scammer’s bank account.

The alleged victim had done so to avoid being sent back to China to assist in investigations into alleged money laundering.

Officers from the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) then followed up on the investigations and managed to establish the identity of the holder of the bank account, nabbing her.

Wang is set to return to court on 18 April for her pre-trial conference and if found guilty of each charge of cheating, she faces a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine.

For each charge of dealing with the benefits of criminal conduct, she faces a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine of up to $500,000.

If found guilty of providing false information to a public servant, she faces a jail term of up to 6 months and a fine of up to $5,000.