Singapore Chief Justice Yong Pung How has told the local law society to clean up the profession as the fifth lawyer in 12 months was jailed for pocketing their client’s money.

The Straits Times reported that Tay Soo Wan was sentenced to 21 months late last month after he pleaded guilty last year to misappropriating $S46,015 ($35,080.37) he received from his client in 2002. After acting for Wong Tak Wa in his divorce hearing in 2001, Tay was entrusted with passing on the sum to his former wife’s solicitor. Instead he put it in his firm’s bank account, using $S43,379.75 of it to pay a property developer in a separate conveyancing matter he was handling for three other clients. He spent the rest on himself.