Singapore legislation

Clause 41

of Vulnerable Adults Bill

Clause 41

Amendment of Protection from Harassment Act

The Protection from Harassment Act (Cap. 256A, 2015 Ed.) is amended by inserting, immediately after section 8, the following section:“Enhanced penalty for offence against vulnerable adult8A.—

(1)

This section applies where —

(a)

a person is convicted on or after the date of commencement of the Vulnerable Adults Act 2018 of an offence under section 3, 4, 5 or 7 (called in this section the offender) against a vulnerable adult; and

(b)

the offender has no prior conviction (whether before, on or after that date) of the offence under section 3, 4, 5 or 7 (as the case may be), whether or not the prior conviction is for an offence against a vulnerable adult.(2) The court may sentence the offender to punishment not exceeding one and a half times the maximum punishment that the court could, but for this section, impose for the offence, if at the time of committing the offence the offender knew or ought reasonably to have known that the victim was a vulnerable adult.(3) In this section, “vulnerable adult” has the meaning given by section 2 of the Vulnerable Adults Act 2018.”.