Woman fails in bid to claim $330k from ex-lover

Court finds woman's loan claim to be 'not worthy of belief'

Madam Wang Rui, 44, and company director Freddy Yap, 41, had met in 2006 when both of them were married to other people. -- PHOTO: LIANHE WANBAO
Madam Wang Rui, 44, and company director Freddy Yap, 41, had met in 2006 when both of them were married to other people. -- PHOTO: LIANHE WANBAO

A woman who claimed her ex-lover owed her $330,000 failed to convince the High Court, which found her evidence inconsistent and dismissed her suit. Madam Wang Rui, 44, who is from China, claimed she had handed the monies in $1,000 notes to company director Freddy Yap, 41, in his car on five occasions over nine months from May 2010.

Mr Yap, who was defended by lawyer Michael Han, denied her claims and countered it was he who had lent her money "because she was an inveterate gambler who lost heavily at the casino".

The court found Madam Wang's claims on the five loans rested on her word.

"But her word was thoroughly confused and not worthy of belief," wrote Justice Vinodh Coomaraswamy in decision grounds released yesterday.

The couple were the only ones to testify at the trial, giving evidence against each other. With almost no documentary evidence directly supporting either party's case, the judge's decision hinged on who was the more credible witness.

The couple had met in 2006 when both were married to other people. Mr Yap divorced his wife in September 2009 and began a relationship with Madam Wang three months later.

In November 2011, she had a child but the relationship ended four months later "in difficult circumstances", noted the judge.

Justice Vinodh found her evidence under cross-examination to be "wholly contradictory".

Her claim that Mr Yap had voluntarily acknowledged part of the debt in writing "did not make sense", as there was no reason for him to sign a debt note in April 2011. They were close, she was pregnant and he had invited her to live with him.

Madam Wang, who was represented by lawyer Robert Tock, could not produce the note, or documents to back her claim that $255,000 of the $330,000 was remitted from China.

The judge said he took into account that she spoke Mandarin, was agitated and under stress when cross-examined, and in a "forensic environment foreign to most people". But none of these factors was the cause of the "serious shortcomings" in her evidence. "(Madam Wang)'s case and evidence just did not have the ring of truth to it," he said.

vijayan@sph.com.sg

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