Vincent Lee Chuan Leong

A 2021 YouTube interview was filmed, with the producers speaking to Lee about his case and life after his release. During the interview and documentary, Lee continually expressed his regret for committing the crime, and he also spoke about some details of his life prior to and after his time in prison. Lee also revealed that during his final months of his imprisonment, he was transferred from Changi Prison to the Selarang Park Complex, where it prepared programmes for inmates who served long sentences to learn about the skills required in the outside world (eg. using a smartphone) and to gain adaptation and integration into the outside world. Several prison officers were also interviewed to speak about Lee's process of rehabilitation. The interview video was eventually set to private and only accessible to selected users.

Shortly after releasing the girl, Lee was arrested by the Singapore Police Force for kidnapping the teenager for ransom, and his two accomplices were also caught. Lee was found guilty of kidnapping by ransom and sentenced to life imprisonment. The two accomplices also received the same sentence for the same crime. After serving twenty years, ten months and nine days in jail, Lee was granted parole and is currently released from prison since 22 June 2020.

After serving 20 years, ten months and nine days, Lee, then 54 years old, was released on 22 June 2020, after the Life Imprisonment Review Board reviewed his conduct and decided that he be eligible for parole, provided that he never commit another crime outside prison while the parole order remains in force. Lee is currently working as a lorry driver.

Under Section 3 of the Kidnapping Act, if found guilty of kidnapping by ransom, Lee, Zhou and Shi would be sentenced to either life imprisonment or the death penalty, with caning optionally to be imposed if the offender receives life imprisonment. The trio were later additionally charged with the attempted kidnapping of another 14-year-old girl in March 2000.

On 24 April 2000, 33-year-old Vincent Lee Chuan Leong first stood trial in the High Court for kidnapping 14-year-old Sandi Yong. By then, Lee submitted to the court his intention to plead guilty to the kidnapping charge. After receiving the plea, the High Court convicted Lee for kidnapping Yong for ransom.

The trial of Zhou Jian Guang and Shi Song Jing took place five days later in a separate courtroom, with another judge Judicial Commissioner (JC) Tay Yong Kwang hearing the case. Despite initially not pleading guilty, both Zhou and Shi chose to change their plea to guilt to kidnapping the 14-year-old girl for extorting the ransom. JC Tay sentenced both Zhou and Shi to life imprisonment on 29 April 2000, exactly the same sentence Lee received. Both men also did not receive caning, based on the facts that Yong was unharmed and treated well while in their captivity, as well as the legal principle of parity where an accomplice who played a more minor role than the mastermind cannot be subjected to a harsher penalty than the mastermind. Lee acted as a witness in the joint trial of the two Chinese men.

Both Zhou and Shi later appealed against the sentence. However, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeals on 21 August 2000. Chief Justice Yong Pung How highlighted in the judgement that life imprisonment was the most lenient punishment for kidnapping under the laws of Singapore, and he also took to remind the pair that they would have been hanged if any harm had been done to the girl in the first place.

The case of Vincent Lee Chuan Leong was subsequently re-enacted by Singapore crime show Crimewatch, and the re-enactment aired on television as the eighth episode of the show's annual season in 2000, the same year when Vincent Lee, Shi Song Jing and Zhou Jian Guang were sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping Yong.

Vincent Lee Chuan Leong (李泉梁 Lǐ Quánliáng) is a Singaporean ex-convict who made headlines for kidnapping a 14-year-old female student in 1999, together with two illegal immigrants from China. The trio abducted the teenager into their rented car, and they demanded a ransom of S$500,000 from the girl's father, who was a wealthy second-hand car dealer. Eventually, through negotiations, the ransom was lowered to S$330,000, and upon the agreement to the amount, the ransom was paid and the girl was subsequently released without harm.

By August 1999, however, Lee was facing heavy financial trouble and potential bankruptcy from share trading, and to make matters worse, his wife, who was in the late stage of pregnancy at that time, required medical attention and the expensive medical fees also caused additional financial burden on Lee, who was desperate to discharge his debts and his wife's upcoming medical fees.

Due to his desperation to pay off his debts, Lee decided to kidnap a girl for ransom, specifically a teenage girl who was the daughter of a rich family living in one of the affluent neighbourhoods in Bukit Timah. For his plan, Lee hired two illegal Chinese immigrants he met at a coffee shop near Hougang Plaza. One of the foreigners was 26-year-old Zhou Jian Guang (周建光 Zhōu Jiànguāng), a China-born native of Fujian Province, who was married with a five-year-old son, and he first came to Singapore to work as a construction worker in order to build a house for his parents, wife and son. Since July 1999, he lost his job but continued to stay in Singapore. The other was 29-year-old Shi Song Jing (施松进 Shī Sōngjìn), who came to Singapore from China in February 1997 due to him being duped about various well-paid jobs in Singapore. Shi was abandoned by his agent and he had to stay all alone in Singapore as a illegal immigrant for six months before getting a job as a plasterer. Both Zhou and Shi agreed to assist Lee in executing the kidnap plot.

On the night of 9 September 1999, 14-year-old Sandi Yong Sze Hui (杨思慧 Yáng Sīhuì), a Secondary Two student of Monk's Hill Secondary School, was walking back home, wanting to celebrate her father's birthday, which fell on the same day she was kidnapped. Yong's father Yong Cher Keng (杨慈庆 Yáng Cíqìng) was a wealthy second-hand car dealer who resided at Sian Tuan Avenue in Bukit Timah. While on her way home, Yong was targetted by Vincent Lee and the two Chinese men, who abducted her and kept her inside her van. Subsequently, Yong was blindfolded and kept inside a bedroom, with her hands tied and her mouth covered with adhesive tape. During the time of her confinement, Yong was treated well and kindly by the trio, and she was not hurt.

After receiving the ransom money, on the morning of 12 September 1999, about 60 hours after her abduction, 14-year-old Sandi Yong was released by Zhou on Lee's orders, and she safely returned home after hailing a taxi. According to her parents in an April 2000 article, in the aftermath of Lee's trial for kidnapping, Yong remained traumatised and did not go outdoors much ever since the incident.

At the time of Lee's sentencing, it was less than three years since the changes to the definition of life imprisonment under the law. Originally, on and before 20 August 1997, life imprisonment means a fixed jail term of 20 years in prison, and with good behaviour, an early release would be granted after serving at least two-thirds of the life sentence (13 years and 4 months). Due to the landmark ruling of Abdul Nasir Amer Hamsah's appeal on 20 August 1997, the interpretation of life imprisonment was changed to a term of incarceration for the rest of the convicted prisoner's natural life instead of 20 years in prison, and the new interpretation would apply to future crimes committed after 20 August 1997. Lee's crime took place in September 1999 and his life sentence was imposed in April 2000, hence his prison term would be equivalent to the remainder of his natural lifespan, with the possibility of parole after twenty years.

The kidnapping of Yong was the first reported kidnapping case to occur in Singapore in a decade. The last case of kidnapping happened in 1989, when 56-year-old goldsmith Phang Tee Wah was kidnapped by two men for a S$2 million ransom; however, Phang was murdered four days after his abduction due to the kidnappers - 50-year-old Ibrahim Masod and 44-year-old Liow Han Heng - failing to get the ransom they demanded. Both men were sentenced to death for kidnapping and murdering Phang, though only Ibrahim would eventually be hanged at Changi Prison on 29 July 1994 while Liow died of a heart attack in August 1993 before he could be executed.

Born in Singapore in 1966, Vincent Lee Chuan Leong was an academically-inclined student who used to study at the Presbyterian Boy's School before he went on to further his studies in university, and he earned a double degree in mathematics and finance. Upon his graduation, Lee worked as a marketing manager. Lee was a Christian and according to the pastor of the church Lee frequented to, he was known for his good character and participation to counsel troubled youth when they approached him for advice and help.