26 In accessing Lee’s credibility and his evidence on the circumstances surrounding the sale transaction, I was mindful of the fact that this was essentially a case of one person’s word against another as he and the Accused had given materially different versions as to what happened and there were no witnesses to this transaction. As such, I observed him carefully when he was cross-examined and I bore in mind the guidance given by the High Court in Tan Wei Yi v PP [2005] 3 SLR 471 when dealing with cases of this nature:
“23 The question would then be whether it was safe to convict the appellant solely on the victim’s testimony. Although there is no prohibition against relying on the evidence of one witness, as I reiterated very recently in Yeo Eng Siang v PP [2005] SGHC 47; [2005] 2 SLR 409 at [25], there is an inherent danger in convicting an accused based only on the evidence of a single witness. The court must be mindful of this danger and has to subject the evidence before it to careful scrutiny before arriving at a decision to convict an accused person on the basis of a sole witness’s testimony: Low Lin Lin v PP [2002] 4 SLR 14 at [49]; Khua Kian Keong v PP [2003] 4 SLR 526 at [16]; Phua Song Hua v PP [2004] SGHC 33 at [16]. In such circumstances, it is trite law that a conviction may be sustained on the testimony of one witness only if the court made a finding that the witness’s testimony was so compelling that a conviction could be based solely on it: Kuek Ah Lek v PP [1995] 3 SLR 252 at [60]; Yeo Eng Siang v PP at [25].”