By Andre Yeo

PRAYER beads in hand, the unidentified middle-aged woman waited anxiously outside the court room.

All she said was that it was her first time there.

She was one of about 40 people at the Subordinate Courts yesterday, to be with their guru, Shi Ming Yi.

The celebrity monk was sentenced to 10months' jail for giving an unauthorised $50,000 loan to his former personal assistant, Raymond Yeung, 34, who was jailed nine months for his role in the cover-up.

Ming Yi, 47, founder and former CEO of Ren Ci hospital, had covered up the loan which was given by Ren Ci to the Ren Ci-affiliated Mandala Buddhist Cultural Centre on 17May 2004.

The money went instead to Yeung, who helped a friend pay for home renovations.

Deputy Public Prosecutors (DPP) Jaswant Singh and David Chew had pushed for a jail term for both.

Mr Singh, in his submissions, said both men must be put behind bars as they had clearly misused charitable funds which had been provided for by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and by the public.

Through their lies, the two men had weaved a tangled web of deceit to deceive MOH and the Commercial Affairs Department.

Of Ming Yi, he asked: "Was this the conduct of someone who was truly remorseful"

"In court, we observed him trying to wriggle his way out of statements. If there was any remorse, it was not shown during the trial.

"It's only being shown now."

Mr Singh also urged the court to not put too much weight on the more than 9,000 signatures the defence team had submitted from the public showing support for Ming Yi last August.

He said that was before details of his lavish lifestyle emerged, like his travels, hotel stays, shopping sprees, pet horse, and his golf club membership in Australia.

It was also before details about his personal relationship with Yeung surfaced.

But Ming Yi's lawyer Senior Counsel Andre Yeap argued that a fine was enough punishment as the monk had done much good for the community over the years through his charitable works.

In his mitigation, Mr Yeap said his client had risked "life and limb" training for and performing physical stunts to raise funds for Ren Ci.

In 2003 he noted, Ming Yi abseiled down a Suntec City tower on a rainy night.

He could have called it off but didn't. He helped raise $3.83 million.

In 2004, he stood chest-deep in 1 tonne of ice cubes to raise $7.34m, and in 2006, he walked across a 22m-long beam at the top of Republic Plaza to raise $5.65m.

Mr Yeap argued that because Ming Yi was such a high-profile figure, he had suffered "tsunami-sized" shame and embarrassment.

The bad publicity had affected his family and friends, donors, and staff and patients at the hospital.

He asked the court to take Ming Yi's contributions into consideration.

"The good that people have done should be recognised," he said.

"We all make mistakes. But that does not mean the accused is an evil person, a bad person who will be committing one wrong after another.

"We can't expect someone who is a religious figure to be superhuman."

Ming Yi, Mr Yeap pointed out, had been punished enough from the media coverage of the trial. The monk was remorseful and such a thing would never happen again, he added.

Said Mr Yeap: "The accused has been destroyed entirely. Can there be a harsher punishment..." Everything that he has worked for, everything that he has worked to build, has been lost. There is no reason at all for a custodial sentence."

In the end, District Judge Toh Yung Cheong decided both men should be jailed.

In his written grounds of decision, the judge said the two men had prevented the Commissioner of Charities (COC) from performing his duties through their "sustained lies and falsification of documents".

They had also continually lied to the MOH in their oral and written statements.

And Ming Yi, as CEO and chairman of Ren Ci, had betrayed public trust.

Said Judge Toh: "The $50,000 that was taken from Ren Ci's coffers could have been used to help the poor and needy patients that (Ming Yi) repeatedly referred to in his evidence.

"Instead, it was used to help pay for home renovations."

He added the crime had far-reaching consequences. "Offences of this nature do not just affect a single charity. They affect the public's trust and confidence in the entire charity sector," he said.

"As such, the sentence imposed must be sufficient to deter other persons form committing similar offences in the future."

Both men, now out on bail, have appealed against the sentence.

This article was first published in The New Paper.