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SINGAPORE: A man was jailed for four weeks on Friday (October 23) for offering a bribe to a police officer so that enforcement action would not be taken against him for violating a COVID-19 regulation.
He had been repeatedly caught with the mask incorrectly lowered, so he could smoke or talk on the phone.
Chen Long, a 28-year-old Chinese national, admitted to a charge of corruptly offering S $ 50 to a public transportation security command officer at the Boon Lay MRT station on May 7.
The court heard that Chen was working for a company that provided laundry services to hotels at the time of the crime.
At 6 p.m. on May 7, a patrol team of public transport security command officers under the Singapore Police Force spotted Chen near the smoking corner at the Boon Lay MRT station.
His mask was lowered and covering only his neck and chin, contrary to the required COVID-19 regulation that says that people must wear masks over their nose and mouth outside of their homes.
Investigations revealed that Chen had finished his work and pulled down his mask to smoke a cigarette and drink a can of beer.
The patrol team gestured for him to put on the mask correctly and Chen obeyed, but the team returned 10 minutes later to see Chen talking on the phone with his mask down.
As it was the second time he had been seen breaking the law, they approached him and carried out a check on him. They found that while Chen had a valid work permit, it appeared that he did not work for an essential service provider.
Chen was detained and taken to an isolation room at the Boon Lay MRT station, where an officer interviewed him to see if he could work that day.
Increasingly restless, Chen asked the officer how long the interview would take and stated that he had something important to attend to.
Chen opened his wallet, showed the officer the money inside, and offered him $ 50 to let him go.
Realizing that Chen was trying to bribe him, the officer immediately motioned for him to stop by raising his hands in the air and asked if he admitted that he was trying to bribe him, to which Chen said yes.
When the officer told Chen that bribery is a serious crime in Singapore, Chen was silent from then on.
Later, another officer interviewed Chen and asked him what he was going to do with the $ 50 bill. Chen said he wanted the team to take the money to buy some drinks and stop monitoring him.
For offering a bribe under the Prevention of Corruption Act, Chen could have been jailed for up to five years, fined up to S $ 100,000, or both.
The Office of Corrupt Practices Investigation said in a statement after sentencing that those caught trying to bribe their way out of COVID-19-related crimes will face additional punishment under the law.
CPIB said Chen received a composition fine of S $ 300 for his breach of COVID-19 regulations and praised the officer for refusing the bribe.
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