SINGAPORE – Dr Ang Peng Tiam, a prominent cancer doctor in private practice, has been fined $25,000 by the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) following complaints by a patient in 2010.

Dr Ang’s company, TalkMed Group, issued a release on Sunday to say that Dr Ang has “been strongly advised to appeal against the decision” and that he has decided to do so.

TalkMed is publicly listed and the release by Mr Lee Boon Yong, its chief financial officer, is in compliance with rules of the Singapore Exchange.

A spokesman for TalkMed told The Straits Times: “We have not yet communicated with the SMC as the formal and full grounds of appeal are still being prepared.”

In 2010, a family member of a patient who had been treated by Dr Ang had filed four complaints against the oncologist with the SMC, the professional watchdog.

There were no further details on the complaints in the TalkMed statement.

It was one of 152 complaints against doctors the SMC received that year. All the complaints are then seen by the Complaints Committee which decides if there is merit to the complaints. If there is, the case is heard by a disciplinary tribunal.

The tribunal heard the complaints against Dr Ang, who is also the Medical Director at the Parkway Cancer Centre.

The entire process usually takes several years.

The tribunal cleared Dr Ang of two charges, but found him guilty of the other two and imposed a $25,000 fine on him.

Doctors found guilty by the SMC are usually given a month to decide if they will appeal the decision. Such appeals are heard by the High Court.

If there is no appeal, the decision of the tribunal, and the reasons for the decision, would be made public after a month.

TalkMed’s release added: “We have full confidence in Dr Ang and the day-to-day operations of the company are not affected.”

This article was first published on July 19, 2016.
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SINGAPORE – Police have arrested a 23-year-old man who allegedly stole $36,000 from the bank account of a 32-year-old woman in a DHL parcel scam.

This arrest follows that of three men on July 14 for a similar scam.

The police said they received a report on July 4 from the 32-year-old woman, who said that an unknown person claiming to work for DHL had called to tell her that her parcel had been detained by Chinese Customs for containing illegal goods.

She said the call was then transferred to another person whose number was reflected in the caller ID as “999”. This man claimed to be from the police and the woman was asked to provide her Internet banking credentials, including the One-Time Password from her Internet banking dongle.

The woman later discovered that $36,000 was transferred from her bank account to an unknown account.

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The police established the identity of the 23-year-old suspect after extensive investigations and arrested the man on Monday (July 18), they said in a statement on Tuesday.

The man is believed to be involved in at least five other similar cases, involving losses totalling about $90,000, police said.

He will be charged in court on Wednesday. If found guilty, he can be jailed up to 5 years, fined, or both.

Many reports of such scams have said that scammers spoked with a mainland-Chinese accent. The man arrested yesterday and the three men arrested on Thursday, however, are believed to be Malaysians.

sinsh@sph.com.sg

See also: 9 scams that are happening in Singapore now