SINGAPORE – A former lawyer was sentenced to four years and four months’ jail and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine on May 3 after she misappropriated more than $527,000 from a client who has borderline intellectual functioning.

Soraya Hafsa Ibrahim, 58, who used her ill-gotten gains for her personal expenses and debt repayments, had pleaded guilty in April to two counts of criminal breach of trust.

She also admitted to one count of preparing legal documents and accepting a fee after she had been disbarred as a lawyer in 2020.

In earlier proceedings, defence lawyers Shashi Nathan and Harjeet Kaur told the court that she had not been motivated by greed, but had wanted to help her son, who had a debt of almost $600,000.

Before handing down the sentence on May 3, Principal District Judge Jill Tan noted that Soraya has made full restitution.

However, the judge stressed that in cases involving lawyers committing criminal breach of trust, the primary sentencing consideration is general deterrence to reflect the gravity of such offences.

Judge Tan also said that the case involved a vulnerable victim and the former lawyer was aware of his mental state.

Soraya, who was the sole proprietor and only lawyer at Soraya H. Ibrahim & Co, was hired by the victim identified in court documents as V1.

In 2019, V1 engaged her to assist him with legal matters relating to the administration of the estate of his late mother.

The court heard that V1 is not intellectually disabled but has below-average cognitive ability. He was also partially dependent on a caregiver, who monitored and cooked for him.

Despite this, the Institute of Mental Health had found him fit to be an administrator of his mother’s estate.

After a bank account was opened and funds from the estate’s assets were deposited into it, Soraya began thinking about using the money in that account to tide her over her financial difficulties, said the prosecution.

Soraya asked V1 to sign cheques that she used to withdraw a total of $527,002 from his account, depositing the cash into her own account.

In an unrelated case in 2021, another victim, V2, contacted Soraya as he wanted his mother to be listed as a legal owner of a flat.

Soraya took on the matter and collected a fee of $10,000, despite having been disbarred in 2020 for deceiving a client into handing over $25,000 that she issued bogus receipts for.

She had told V2 that she was not a practising lawyer and was instead running a consultancy firm. But she did not tell him that she could not handle his legal matter after she was disbarred earlier.

V2 lodged a police report in 2022, and she has since made full restitution to him.

Soraya’s bail was set at $100,000 on May 3, and she is expected to surrender herself at the State Courts on June 18 to begin serving her sentence.