SINGAPORE - Lawyer and opposition politician Lim Tean was fined $30,000 by the Court of Three Judges on April 10 in a disciplinary case over his handling of a $30,000 cheque that was meant for his client.

The Law Society of Singapore had called for Lim to be struck off the rolls, while Lim asked for “a very small fine”.

In a written judgment on April 10, the court said a financial penalty was the appropriate disciplinary sanction in this case because there was no finding of dishonesty against Lim.

The court cited several factors in imposing a “heavier fine”, including Lim’s cavalier attitude towards lawyers’ obligations in handling clients’ money and his status as a senior practitioner with more than 25 years of experience at the time.

In 2019, Lim had banked the cheque into the office account of his firm, Carson Law Chambers, instead of a separate account for holding clients’ monies as required under legal profession rules.

The cheque was interim payment for a judgment sum awarded to the client, Mr Suresh Kumar A. Jesupal, for a traffic accident claim.

Lim, 61, had been referred to the court to be sanctioned after he was found guilty of grossly improper conduct by a disciplinary tribunal on two charges in August 2023.

The first charge was for banking in the cheque despite having been discharged by Mr Suresh and the second was for failing to deposit the cheque into the account for clients’ money.

However, the court, which comprised Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, Justice Tay Yong Kwang and Justice Andrew Phang, overturned the conviction for the first charge.

It said the Law Society had not proved the first charge beyond a ...