From the high life to prime suspect

HIGH-FLYING British businessman Michael McCrea thought he had it all. A young wife, baby son, and a financial advice firm providing him with the sort of lifestyle he had always dreamed of - chauffeurs, servants, a sumptuous apartment and access to beautiful women.

Living the life of excess enjoyed by many expats in Singapore, McCrea, 44, worked hard and played hard - even installing his 23-year-old personal assistant and lover in his home when his wife moved to Australia to be with her family.

But his dream turned sour last January, when two bodies were discovered in a silver executive Daewoo on the seventh floor of a car park in Orchard Towers, a seedy area in an otherwise glamorous district of Singapore.

One of the decaying corpses, found stuffed inside a wicker basket in the boot of the car, a bouquet of wilted roses by his side, turned out to be Kho Nai Guan, 46, McCrea’s chauffeur. The other, a woman whose remains had been left on the back seat, was Lan Ya Ming, 30, Mr Kho’s girlfriend. Both had been strangled.

McCrea is now alone, fighting extradition to Singapore over the murders from his cell in Port Philip prison in Melbourne, Australia. He also faces a charge for criminal intimidation. He denies murder, which normally carries a mandatory life sentence in Singapore, but can bring sentence.

But yesterday, his case was dealt a blow. Audrey Ong, his girlfriend, is ready to plead guilty to two charges of helping her boss and lover get rid of evidence of the killings.

Ong, currently held in Changi women’s prison in Singapore as her family cannot afford to pay her 70,000 bail, believes her co-operation will reduce her sentence. She faces 14 years and a hefty fine. Her case will be heard next month.

Things were looking bleak for McCrea, despite his increasingly bizarre attempts to clear his name with talk of ever-more complicated plots and conspiracies and the continuing support of his wife, who has attempted to involve British politicians in the case.

In November, in a ruling his lawyers are fighting through the Australian attorney general, a Melbourne court ordered him to be extradited to Singapore, because the Singapore authorities promised that, if convicted, he would not receive the death sentence. His lawyers say the promise is not watertight. A decision is expected this month.

The case against McCrea is supported by a number of key witnesses, including Gemma Louise Ramsbottom, who has known him since 1999.

Ms Ramsbottom has said she saw a lot of blood on the floor of McCrea’s apartment in Balmoral Park on 2 January, 2002. When she noticed a smell coming from a wicker basket and then saw Mr Kho’s body inside, McCrea put a dagger to her throat and warned her not to tell anyone.

Another witness told detectives that Ong told her to bring cleaning fluid to the apartment. She saw a dented metal pole and bloodstains.

McCrea has admitted beating both Mr Kho and Ms Lan unconscious with a metal pole after a fight over stolen money, but he claims it was self-defence.

However, a number of thorny questions remain. Why, then, did he and his girlfriend immediately flee the country? The couple came to Britain, then moved on to Australia, where they turned up at Mrs McCrea’s flat in Port Melbourne - an act which ended his marriage. And why did they never go to the police?

The case has also shed light on McCrea’s unorthodox business activities, prompting reports suggesting he ran a money-laundering racket for expats. It has emerged that the twice-married businessman used an alias - Mike Townsend - to run his internet-based company, April Investments, which promises to hide money off-shore and "keep it safe from the taxman".

McCrea’s arrest last May came after a domestic dispute between him and his Australian wife, Brunetta, over Ong. They were staying at her flat with McCrea’s son, Callum, two, and, after a dispute, McCrea’s mother-in-law called the police. A passport irregularity led to officers realising he was wanted in Singapore.

McCrea continues to protest his innocence. At one point, he wrote to the Nottingham Post, his former local newspaper, claiming that he had been attacked by gangsters. He later retracted his allegations.

He then alleged he had been attacked by Mr Kho and had defended himself, sustaining injuries to his head and hand, and said that he couldn’t go to the police because Mr Kho had stashed drugs in the flat, an offence that, in Singapore, could get him hanged.

But in a country where hangings and floggings are routine instruments of the criminal justice system, so could a conviction for murder.

Draconian laws: Crime- free society?

IN SINGAPORE’S judicial system the regular use of corporal punishment, lengthy prison sentences and the prospect of the death penalty have proved to be effective deterrents to would be offenders. The city-state has been referred to as "virtually crime free", although there have been frequent criticisms of its draconian penal system.

Michael Fay, an American teenager, was sentenced to six strokes of the cane in 1994, later reduced to four following a plea for clemency by President Clinton, as well as a fine and four months imprisonment for vandalising vehicles. In 2001, an elderly illiterate woman in poor health was dragged out of a courtroom to begin a six month jail term after being found guilty of renting an apartment to illegal immigrants. In the past, citizens have been convicted of ‘offences’ such as chewing gum, spitting in public and leaving public lavatories unflushed.

The ban on chewing gum in 1992, which has since been relaxed, was one of the many Orwellian measures imposed by the Singapore government.

In 1995, Nick Lesson was found guilty of forgery and cheating for his role in the collapse of Bearings Bank and was sentenced to six and a half years.