The Singapore courts have yet to consider the situation in which documents relevant to legal action have been destroyed prior to its commencement to the detriment of the party who would otherwise have relied upon them. Recently the Australian courts have approached the issue by limiting the range of sanctions which a civil court might ordinarily impose (for breach of disclosure obligations) in circumstances which give rise to the common law offences of criminal contempt or "attempting to pervert the course of justice". These developments and the statutory and case-law position in Singapore will be examined with a view to suggesting how the courts here should respond to the pre-action destruction of evidence.