Real estate tycoon fined $12k for building 3m-tall wall around his home

Screengrab of the property from Google Maps
Screengrab of the property from Google Maps

Apparently, if you ever walk or drive past a house at the junction of Toh Crescent and Toh Avenue, you’ll find yourself gazing up at a massive wall fencing off the corner property near Upper Changi Road North. It was this two-tier wall — which reaches about 3m in height at its tallest point — that caused real estate tycoon Koh Wee Meng to be fined a hefty sum of $12,000 yesterday. The 53-year-old reportedly built the wall around his house without planning permission from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

According to The Straits Times, Koh pleaded guilty to constructing the development between October 2009 and April 2010. The director of 31 companies — including the Fragrance Group and JK Assets — also confessed to authorizing Emerald Construction and its director to erect the wall around his 3,765 sqm land.

This resulted in the construction company being fined $12,000 for carrying out the development without planning permission and building the unapproved wall, as well as its director being fined $6,000 for giving his firm the seal of approval to put up the wall.

In court, Koh’s lawyer told the District Judge that the wall remains standing and no safety issue has arisen so far.

For constructing the development without planning permission, Koh could have been slapped with a fine of up to $200,000.



Reader Interactions

Leave A Reply


BECOME A COCO+ MEMBER

Support local news and join a community of like-minded
“Coconauts” across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

Join Now
Coconuts TV
Our latest and greatest original videos
Subscribe on