A gold delivery became the target of a planned robbery
Ngo Cheng Poh regularly handled gold bars purchased for export. The Court of Appeal recorded that some consignments were delivered to the home of Andrew Chou Hock Guan, who worked for Air Vietnam, before flights to Saigon. Ngo was sometimes accompanied by Leong Chin Woo and employee Ang Boon Chai.
According to the judgment, a group was assembled in advance to rob and kill the people expected to bring the next consignment. The prosecution witness Augustine Ang described meetings, recruitment and preparations that included selecting a place where bodies might be disposed of.
The December 29 attack
On the night of December 29, 1971, the expected delivery arrived at the Chou residence in Chepstow Close. The appellate judgment recounts evidence that the victims were attacked and strangled while members of the group carried out the common plan.
The victims' bodies were moved away in a car. Gold bars from the delivery were taken and later recovered during the investigation. The case became known publicly as the Gold Bar Murders because the planned robbery of the consignment was central to the prosecution's explanation of motive and preparation.
Nine defendants were convicted of three murders
Nine defendants were tried together and convicted on three murder charges relating to the deaths of Ngo Cheng Poh, Leong Chin Woo and Ang Boon Chai. The prosecution relied heavily on the evidence of Augustine Ang, who had participated in the planning and testified for the prosecution.
The Court of Appeal considered challenges to his credibility, the admissibility and corroboration of evidence, the joint trial and the legal rules governing common purpose. It ultimately rejected the appeals and left the murder convictions in place.
Sentencing outcomes differed for the two youngest defendants
The appellate judgment records that seven of the nine convicted defendants received death sentences. Two defendants who had been under 18 at the time of the offences were instead detained at the President's pleasure under the law then applicable.
Later reporting by The Straits Times, drawing on the newspaper's archives and a project with the Singapore Police Force, records that the seven adults sentenced to death were executed on February 28, 1975. The different treatment of the two younger defendants is preserved here because it is a material part of the legal outcome.
Why this remains one case file
Crime by Region treats the deaths of Ngo Cheng Poh, Leong Chin Woo and Ang Boon Chai as one case file rather than three. They were killed in the same criminal episode, prosecuted together through the same three-charge trial and reviewed in a single appellate proceeding. Splitting them into separate pages would artificially inflate the archive.
Timeline
November–December 1971: according to the appellate record, the robbery and killing plan is organized and participants are recruited.
December 29, 1971: Ngo Cheng Poh, Leong Chin Woo and Ang Boon Chai are killed during the planned robbery.
December 29, 1972: later established reporting records the convictions after the joint trial.
March 29, 1974: the Court of Appeal dismisses the appeals in Chou Hock Guan Andrew and Others v Public Prosecutor.
February 28, 1975: later reporting records that the seven adult defendants under death sentences were executed.
Current status
The Gold Bar Murders are Solved / Adjudicated. Nine defendants were convicted of the three murders and the appellate court dismissed their challenges. Two defendants who were minors at the time were not sentenced to death; the other seven received capital sentences.