Woman asked lover to kill husband by sabotaging his car

A woman in a broken marriage plotted with her lover to kill her husband by sabotaging his car.

Amanda Yeo Pei Min, 27, told her lover, Leong Wei Guo, 25, to loosen the wheel bolts and tamper with the brakes of her husband's Honda Odyssey, despite knowing her children could get into harm's way.

But their plan to kill Mr Walter Ting Yong Chin, 28, was thwarted when an eyewitness called the police after seeing Leong behaving suspiciously at a multi-storey carpark.

Yesterday, Yeo and Leong each pleaded guilty to conspiring to cause grievous hurt to Mr Ting by performing a rash act.

PLEA DEAL

Yeo, an administrative assistant, was originally charged with abetment of murder and Leong, a delivery assistant, with attempted murder, but they had their charges downgraded on Nov 1 last year as part of a plea deal.

Yeo and Mr Ting, who tied the knot in September 2011, have two children.

In June 2017, Mr Ting, a Grab driver, found out Yeo was having an affair with Leong, whom she had met on Facebook.

Their relationship developed as Yeo's marriage deteriorated, culminating with her husband seeking a divorce.

Enraged by their frequent quarrels about the divorce, splitting of matrimonial assets and custody of their children, Yeo decided to kill Mr Ting.

"She conspired with Leong to sabotage his car so he would get into an accident and die," Deputy Public Prosecutor Houston Johannus told District Judge Chay Yuen Fatt.

In January 2018, the lovers concocted a plan to insert nails into Mr Ting's car tyres and cut the wire of the anti-lock braking system (ABS).

Yeo knew Mr Ting was on the road frequently as a Grab car driver and that he drove fast.

She told Leong her husband's death would settle all her problems.

"Leong agreed to do this to make her happy and to prove he was worthy of her love," said DPP Johannus.

Yeo, who was pregnant with Leong's child, gave him photographs of Mr Ting's car and its registration number.

On Jan 6, 2018, Yeo handed Leong some nails to puncture Mr Ting's car tyres.

In the early hours of the next day, Leong went to the multi-storey carpark near the Jurong block where the estranged couple were living and used a pair of pliers to insert one nail each into the front and rear left tyres of Mr Ting's car.

As instructed by Yeo, he covered his face with a jacket to avoid detection and sent her a photograph of his handiwork.

On Jan 10, Yeo learnt that Mr Ting would be driving to Genting Highlands in Malaysia with their children and his parents the next day. When they quarrelled over the phone that evening, she realised he was at his parents' flat in Depot Road.

She texted Leong to tell him she wanted her husband dead and told him to sabotage the car again by loosening the wheel bolts and cutting the wire of the ABS. She had learnt how to make a car go out of control from an online video and hoped this would happen to Mr Ting.

Early on Jan 11, Leong, who had a spanner and wire cutter, reached the multi-storey carpark in Depot Road and found the Odyssey.

But he could not unscrew the wheel bolts with the spanner. He then used the wire cutter to sever the ABS wire behind the front right tyre. He sent a photograph of his deed to Yeo.

A 35-year-old man parking his vehicle saw Leong walking around suspiciously with a jacket draped over his head.

He then alerted the police. When officers arrived and questioned Leong, he could not give a coherent explanation as to what he was doing in the carpark at that hour.

After they found the spanner and wire cutter in his sling bag, Leong confessed that he had wanted to damage a car and took them to Mr Ting's vehicle.

The officers arrested Leong and seized his belongings, including his mobile phone.

Yeo was arrested a few hours later after her role in the crime was ascertained from messages on Leong's phone.

COMPLETELY SEVERED

An inspection of the car found that the ABS wire was completely severed, which a motoring expert said would pose a safety risk as the driver may lose control of the car.

DPP Johannus called for a jail term of four months for Leong and five months for Yeo.

They are out on bail of $30,000 each and will be sentenced on March 11.

The New Paper understands that Yeo and Leong are no longer together, and Yeo is divorced from Mr Ting.

This article was first published in The New Paper. Permission required for reproduction.