Just when you thought it was bad enough to be attacked by one person, wait til you think you were hit so badly that you start to have double vision – only to realise that your attacker has a twin.
The chance of identical twin pregnancies is rare enough, at one in every 250 births, so imagine how much rarer it is to run into identical sibling pairs in the courtroom within the same month. And it just happened! The cases of twins Tang Bei and Tang Lei, 50, and Tiffany and Tiziana Kang, 30, were heard in court just this month.
While the Tangs were found guilty of causing hurt and using criminal force, the Kangs were convicted of theft and face jail terms.
Read on and find out more; we’ve added a third, non-Tang/Kang case from October 2016 for good measure.
1. Tang Bei and Tang Lei, 2015
These twin sisters were filmed assaulting and spitting on a condominium manager over the matter of an access card in 2015.
The above footage was captured by the plaintive, Simei Green condo manager Colvin Quek Choon Kiat, who had once been attacked by Tang Bei in February. In April the same year, upon seeing her and her twin sister approach the office, he decided to place his phone on top of a cabinet to record their actions.
According to Yahoo!’s news report, Tang Bei told Quek to go away as she did not want to see Quek’s “ugly face” and used an expletive on him. After Quek responded to her comment, Tang Bei was enraged and a dispute ensued. Tang Lei splashed liquid from a can on Quek repeatedly while Tang Bei spat at his face.
Security guard Bligh Charles Kenneth, who entered the office earlier, intervened but the sisters continued their attack on Quek, including throwing a bunch of keys and the empty can at him. Quek was assessed at a hospital to have bruises and abrasions over his face and head.
The sisters, who are Chinese nationals, were subsequently convicted of causing hurt and using criminal force on not just on Quek, but also on the security guard Kenneth.
However, the matter of who is the victim here is not so clear-cut, as the twins’ lawyer Richard Siaw revealed that his clients view themselves as victims, and that they are currently involved in two ongoing civil suits against Quek and his employer, Hilandas Property and Facilities Management.
Sentencing for this case has been adjourned to 28 August.
2. Tiffany and Tiziana Kang, November 2017
On 19 Nov last year, the Kang twins ended a day of shoplifting by gatecrashing a wedding banquet, and could have gotten away scot-free had they not decided to steal a piece of luggage from the bride.
According to The Straits Times, Tiffany and Tiziana Kang, 30, joined in the wedding celebration of Mr Jamie Chew, 30, and Ms Tan Huiyan, 26, at the Shin Yeh restaurant at Liang Court, even though they had not been invited and did not know anyone there.
After enjoying the dinner, they snitched a pink piece of luggage containing items such as coffee mugs, pens and one roll of film, worth a total of around $150. The bride herself later discovered that it had gone missing, and that the twins were uninvited guests. She found them at Liang Court’s taxi stand and confronted them.
Tiffany claimed that she thought the luggage was a lost item and attempted to leave in a taxi but was stopped by Mr Chew, the groom.
On 5 July, Tiffany was sentenced to 10 days’ jail and Tiziana, five.
The pink luggage was the fifth item the twins had stolen that day. Earlier, the twins took three handbags and a wallet, worth a total of $640, from a Guess Accessories store in Bugis Junction.
3. Lakshmanan and Raman Pothiyappan, October 2016
Construction workers Lakshmanan Pothiyappan and Raman Pothiyappan, 24 at the time of sentencing in June last year, were each sent to jail for five months and ordered to receive three strokes of the cane for assaulting their fellow Indian national.
Mr Thevvan Velayutham, 41, was sitting at the front porch of a Shaw Road dormitory, near Upper Paya Lebar Road on 29 Oct 2016 when the two brothers started punching and kicking him.
According to a report by The New Paper, Lakshmanan had consumed alcohol shortly before the attack. Mr Thevvan later went to Changi General Hospital where he was found to be suffering from injuries such as a broken nose and a facial fracture near an eye. The reason for provocation was not mentioned in court.
Know of any other misbehaving twins on Singapore’s shores? Let us know if you do.
Sources: Yahoo!, The Straits Times, The New Paper
