Man gave colleague $4,000 to bribe policeman and ICA officer
A company director of a firm dealing with balloons handed his then colleague $4,000 to be used to bribe officers from the police and Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) in separate incidents in 2015.
Goh Siong Kiat, now 60, pleaded guilty on Monday to one count of instigating a man to offer a bribe of $1,000 to a policeman.
Goh also admitted to attempting to give a bribe of $3,000 to an ICA officer through the man.
The Straits Times earlier reported that on Oct 4, 2015, a police station inspector identified as Terence Lam Guo Long was part of a team that arrested 13 men for rioting in Clive Street in Little India.
One of the men, Pua Kok Siong, sought Goh's help to escape a jail term as he believed that Goh knew some police officers.
Goh sought the help of one of his colleagues, Lim Sua Huat, thinking that the latter had some police contacts.
Goh also handed Lim $1,000, telling him that it was to be used to settle Pua's case.
Lim arranged a meeting for himself, Goh and Lam at a coffee shop some time between October and November 2015.
On Monday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Thiagesh Sukumaran said: "At the meeting, (Lam told the other two men) that he could not help Pua at all because there was CCTV (closed-circuit television) footage that showed Pua's role in the fight. The meeting ended soon after."
Lim, however, kept the $1,000 and did not return it to Goh.
Lim, then 61, was sentenced to nine months and six weeks' jail in December 2017.
Lam, who was then 38, quit the police force in February 2016. In August 2017, he was sentenced to seven months and six weeks' jail.
The DPP did not disclose the outcome of Pua's case.
In another incident in 2015, a secret society headman asked for Goh's help in a case involving Mr Ng Thiam Teck who was then investigated by ICA for various offences. Details about them were not revealed in court documents.
Goh asked Lim if he knew anyone in the agency who could help Mr Ng get off lightly.
Lim, who initially told Goh that he did not know anyone in ICA, later found out from a lawyer that ICA had issued Mr Ng a warning for his offences.
Lim told Goh about the outcome of the case.
The DPP said: "(Goh) assumed that Lim had sought assistance from an ICA officer in getting (Mr Ng) a warning and asked whether his ICA contact required anything. Lim told (Goh) that his contact had asked for a sum of $3,000.
"In truth, Lim had lied to (Goh) and had not sought assistance from any ICA officer, and did not know anyone in ICA."
In March 2016, Goh transferred $3,000 to a bank account belonging to Lim who used it for his own expenses.
Goh is represented by lawyers Sunil Sudheesan and Joyce Khoo.
In the mitigation plea, the pair from Quahe Woo & Palmer law firm said: "Our client's sole motivation for carrying out the offences was to help his friends find out more about the respective investigations."
Goh is expected to be sentenced on Oct 21.
For offering a bribe, an offender can be jailed for up to five years and fined up to $100,000.
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