Infidelity, corporate intrigue and a fatal attack in Chinatown

In 2014, Mr Spencer Tuppani told a magazine how he had saved his father-in-law's company from bankruptcy during the 2008 financial crisis.

In doing so, he had pulled out all stops, including selling his watch collection.

He added in the interview that he had turned the company around in just 18 months. The interview also stated that its turnover in 2014 was 50 times higher than in 2003.

But Mr Tuppani's relationship with his wife's father would soon take a drastic turn amid recriminations of marital betrayal and suspicions of corporate chicanery.

It culminated in the older man fatally stabbing Mr Tuppani, 39, thrice in front of a lunchtime crowd in Chinatown on July 10, 2017.

Yesterday, Tan Nam Seng, 72, was sentenced to 8½ years in jail after he pleaded guilty last month to a reduced charge of culpable homicide.

Calling the attack a "brazen, unprovoked killing" driven by a desire to seek revenge, Deputy Public Prosecutors Lim Jian Yi and Derek Ee asked for a jail sentence of at least 12 years.

Tan's defence lawyer, Mr Wee Pan Lee, called for a sentence of 7½ years, citing Tan's poor health and advanced age.

Tan initially had an amicable relationship with Mr Tuppani, who married his eldest daughter, Ms Shyller Tan, in 2005 and began working in one of his companies, TNS Logistics.

Sometime in 2008 or 2009, the TNS group of companies was consolidated into a single company, TNS Ocean Lines (TOL), with Tan as the chairman and Mr Tuppani one of its directors.

Court documents revealed that in 2016, Mr Tuppani suggested selling TOL to a bigger corporation and later convinced Tan, Ms Tan, and another shareholder to assign their shares to him to boost his stake in the company.

Mr Wee said in the mitigation plea that Mr Tuppani, who was made chief executive of the new company, gave Tan and Ms Tan only about half of what was promised to them from the sale of TOL.

Tan later became convinced that his son-in-law was out to cheat him of his business and became more unhappy when he found out that Mr Tuppani had been cheating on his daughter.

The couple had been having matrimonial discord since 2013 when Ms Tan discovered Mr Tuppani had been involved in a string of extramarital affairs.

In 2015, Ms Tan conceived a fourth child but was forced to terminate the pregnancy by Mr Tuppani, Mr Wee said.

Their marital woes were exacerbated after Ms Tan discovered her husband had been using TOL to fund his lavish lifestyle of expensive cars, luxury watches and the upkeep of his mistresses.

In early 2017, Ms Tan found out that her husband had two other children with a mistress.

In June 2017, Tan discovered that his son-in-law had been secretly recording arguments and conversations with Ms Tan to use in divorce proceedings.

He felt that he had fallen for his son-in law's ploy to cheat him of his company and destroy his family.

LIES

Mr Wee said: "The constant reassurances and promises were lies and were all part of Spencer's ploy to destroy his family, by taking over the business and fighting for custody over the grandchildren."

Mr Tuppani also suspended one of Tan's other two daughters from the company and used vulgarities against Tan's ex-wife in an argument.

Mr Wee said Tan began feeling helpless and found himself unable to sleep and was constantly ruminating about Mr Tuppani's betrayal of his trust.

They arranged to meet in early July but stopped communicating after Mr Tuppani cancelled the meeting.

On July 10, Tan was heading to his office in Cecil Court when he saw Mr Tuppani having lunch at a Telok Ayer coffee shop.

He retrieved a 22cm-long knife from his office and walked back to the coffee shop, where he stabbed Mr Tuppani three times in the chest in quick succession.

Mr Tuppani fled and collapsed outside a restaurant in Boon Tat Street.

When staff from the restaurant tried to help him, Tan pushed them away and said: "This is my son-in-law, don't help him, let him die."

Tan then kicked Mr Tuppani in the face twice.

He called Ms Tan and told her: "I can't sleep at night. I have done it. I have killed him. Don't cry. I am old already. I am not scared (of) going to jail."

When Ms Tan cried and told him not to do anything, Tan replied: "What's done cannot be undone."

He then sat calmly on a nearby chair and waited for the police to arrive.

Mr Tuppani died from one of his three stab wounds that had perforated a heart artery.

Describing the case as "tragic", Justice Dedar Singh Gill noted Tan's major depressive disorder at the time as well as his deteriorating health.

During his remand, Tan contracted tuberculosis, suffered two heart attacks and had to undergo a bypass.

He was also in a pervasive dysphoric state and his worries about the well-being of his daughters had significantly impaired his mental responsibility for the act, the judge added.

For culpable homicide not amounting to murder, Tan could have been jailed for life.

He cannot be caned as he is above 50.