AN Obstetrician and gynaecologist practising at the East Coast Clinic and Surgery for Women, Ng Shwu Yong, has been suspended from practice for three months.

Ng had repeatedly failed to provide accounts of her company, Esther Ng Clinic and Surgery for Women, to the taxmen, the Singapore Medical Council found after receiving a complaint from the Comptroller of Income Tax.

In a statement on Friday, the the Council said the offences Ng committed were not 'merely technical' ones and it was not a case of 'occasional instances of carelessness'.

After being charged and convicted of six offences to submit her company's accounts in 2001, Ng did the same again and was charged for the same offence in 2004. She also failed to appear in court to answer to the charges and warrants for her arrest were issued.

The council's Disciplinary Committee on Sept 30 also found that Ng and her husband, Chee Boon Keng Dennis, were the only directors of the company.

'As her practice as a medical specialist was very closely connected with the business of the company, it was unrealistic for her to try to dissociate herself from the Company by arguing that the offences under the Income Tax Act were committed by her as a director of the Company and not as a medical practitioner', said the SMC statement.

The Council added that Ng's persistent failure to comply with tax laws were 'intentional and wilful' and her multiple convictions implied 'a defect in character which made her unfit for the medical profession'.

Besides the three-month suspension, Ng was also censured by the committee and ordered to pay the costs and expenses of the disciplinary proceedings.