1999 Bukit Timah kidnapping

Leong, born in Singapore in 1966, was an academically inclined student who used to study at the Presbyterian Boys' School before he went on to further his studies in university, and he earned a double degree in mathematics and finance.

Upon his graduation, Lee worked as a marketing manager.

Lee was a Christian and according to the pastor of the church Lee frequented to, he was known for his good character and participation to counsel troubled youth when they approached him for advice and help, and he even offered them free tuition.

The last case of kidnapping happened in April 1989, when 56-year-old goldsmith Phang Tee Wah was kidnapped by two men – 50-year-old Ibrahim Masod and 44-year-old Liow Han Heng – and later killed, and the men also attempted to extort ransom despite the death of Phang.

Both men were sentenced to death for kidnapping and murdering Phang, though only Ibrahim would eventually be hanged at Changi Prison on 29 July 1994, while Liow died of a heart attack in August 1993 before he could be executed.

The other was 29-year-old Shi Song Jing (施松进 Shī Sōngjìn), who came to Singapore from China in February 1997 due to him being duped about various well-paid jobs in Singapore.

Shi was abandoned by his agent and he had to stay all alone in Singapore as an illegal immigrant for six months before getting a job as a plasterer.

Both Zhou and Shi agreed to assist Lee in executing the kidnap plot.

Lee made a plan to abduct a target at Bukit Timah, starting with renting a van for the purpose of forcibly bringing their target into the van, and also rented a flat to use as their hideout and their place to confine the kidnap victim during the kidnapping.

They also placed false license plates with false vehicle numbers on the van to avoid identification of their getaway vehicle.

In 1999, Vincent Lee Chuan Leong (李泉梁 Lǐ Quánliáng), a Singaporean ex-convict, together with two illegal immigrants from China, kidnapped a 14-year-old female student in Singapore.

The trio abducted the teenager into their rented car, and then demanded S$500,000 ransom from the girl's father, a wealthy second-hand car dealer.

Eventually, through negotiations, the ransom was lowered to S$330,000, and upon the agreement to the amount, the ransom was paid and the girl was subsequently released without harm.

Shortly after releasing the girl, Lee was arrested by the Singapore Police Force for kidnapping the teenager for ransom, and his two accomplices Shi Song Jing and Zhou Jian Guang, were also caught.

Lee was found guilty of kidnapping by ransom and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Both Shi and Zhou received the same sentence for the crime in a separate trial.

Since July 1999, he lost his job but continued to stay in Singapore.

Lee, Zhou, and Shi carried out their plan on 9 September 1999.

On the night itself, at Bukit Timah, a 14-year-old girl was walking back home to her house, and was abducted by Lee and his accomplices inside their get-away vehicle.

After kidnapping the girl, the trio held the victim for about 60 hours and kept her blindfolded and tied her hands, but they never mistreated the girl and promised they would not harm her, and even gave her food and water throughout her confinement.

All the while during the confinement of the victim, Lee contacted the girl's father, who was a wealthy scrap car dealer.

Lee demanded a ransom of S$500,000, though this was later reduced to S$330,000 after some negotiations between the father and Lee.

During three of these phone calls, Lee allowed the girl to speak to her father.

The ransom was paid on the night of 11 September, after the father left a bag containing the money at a vacant plot of land in Tampines and Shi was told the retrieve it.

Hours after the ransom was paid, Lee ordered Zhou to release the girl on the morning of 12 September, and the girl safely returned home that same day.

All the while, the police were already in surveillance of the situation after the father reported the matter to the police and they were monitoring the movements of Lee, whom they locked in as a suspect due to them obtaining a record of him purchasing a new mobile phone with his credit card; that same phone was used by Lee to contact the girl's father and to allow her to speak to him.

Twenty minutes after the confirmation of the girl's release and safety, a team of police investigators, led by Inspector Richard Lim Beng Gee, arrested 33-year-old Vincent Lee at his Pasir Ris five-room flat for the kidnapping.

Both Zhou and Shi were subsequently arrested at a flat in Telok Blangah Crescent.

All three of them were charged with kidnapping for purpose of extorting a ransom.

It was further revealed that Zhou and Shi entrusted the ransom money to five other illegal Chinese immigrants to help them to remit the ransom money out of Singapore.

These five people were also arrested, charged and later jailed for dishonestly receiving stolen property; S$214,400 were recovered by the police.

Under Section 3 of the Kidnapping Act, if found guilty of kidnapping by ransom, Lee, Zhou and Shi would be sentenced to either life imprisonment or the death penalty, with caning optionally to be imposed if the offender receives life imprisonment.

Many people from the church were reportedly shocked to hear that he was caught for masterminding the high-profile kidnapping of a girl in 1999.

By August 1999, however, Lee was facing heavy financial trouble and potential bankruptcy from share trading, and to make matters worse, his wife, who was in the late stage of pregnancy at that time, required medical attention and the expensive medical fees also caused additional financial burden on Lee, who was desperate to discharge his debts and his wife's upcoming medical fees.

The trio were later additionally charged with the attempted kidnapping of another 14-year-old girl in March 2000.

The kidnapping was the first reported kidnapping case to occur in Singapore in a decade.

After serving twenty years, ten months and nine days in jail, Lee was granted parole and is currently released from prison since 22 June 2020.

Due to his desperation to pay off his debts, Lee decided to kidnap a girl for ransom, specifically a teenage girl who was the daughter of a rich family living in one of the affluent neighbourhoods in Bukit Timah.

For his plan, Lee hired two illegal Chinese immigrants he met at a coffee shop near Hougang Plaza.

One of the foreigners was 26-year-old Zhou Jian Guang (周建光 Zhōu Jiànguāng), a China-born native of Fujian Province, who was married with a five-year-old son, and he first came to Singapore to work as a construction worker in order to build a house for his parents, wife and son.