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SINGAPORE: A woman who had used her position as a customer service officer at the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) and her daughter were imprisoned for taking bribes from a Malaysian woman to expedite her application for permanent residence in Singapore.
Lucy Teo, 49, pleaded guilty on Tuesday (October 27) to five counts of unauthorized access to computer materials and one count of bribery. Another 13 charges were considered. They gave him 18 weeks in jail.
His daughter, Loo Wai Woon Sharon, 28, admitted to a bribery charge and was sentenced to six weeks in jail and a fine of S $ 1,500. Another charge was considered.
Fenny Tey Hui Nee, the woman who bribed them when she applied to be a permanent resident of Singapore (PR), had been sentenced to four weeks in jail on June 29 this year.
REQUESTING PR
The court heard that in July 2017, Tey had made inquiries to be a Singaporean PR at Immigration Solutions Singapore (ISS), where Loo was working as a sales consultant.
Loo told Tey that ISS offered public relations app services that would cost him S $ 5,000.
But Tey felt this was too expensive and decided not to involve ISS.
However, he approached Loo privately, hoping that Loo would agree to help in a personal capacity and possibly pay a lower fee.
Loo proposed hiring a cousin who worked at ICA, who could help Tey speed up the process, which would cost her S $ 1,500.
The ICA connection turned out to be Teo, Loo’s mother, who worked as a customer service officer. At the time, Teo’s scope of work included handling public inquiries on passports, visa, and matters related to public relations requests.
Loo told Tey that Teo had successfully helped many foreigners with their public relations requests, including those who had previously been rejected.
Loo also said that Teo had first-hand information and could see the electronic appointment booking slots before members of the public did, suggesting that Tey would have a higher chance of success.
They met with Teo four times between September and October 2017 and paid S $ 1,500 during the last two meetings in two equal installments.
They wanted to make the payment by bank transfer to have proof of the transaction, but Teo refused and said that he only accepted the payment in cash.
On October 13, 2017, Tey went to ICA to send her application documents and Teo received her, who helped her with some of the application paperwork and procedures.
Tey’s application was finally approved and he was granted public relations status on November 9, 2018.
ICA SYSTEM USED TO VERIFY APPLICATION STATUS
In the months leading up to approval, Tey had asked Teo about the status of his application.
The court heard that Teo had used her account in the ICA Central Identification and Registration Information System to verify Tey’s case, something she was not authorized to do.
He wasn’t the only person Teo did this for.
The court heard that Teo had conducted a total of 20 unauthorized checks between May 25 and October 30, 2018, including for his brother-in-law, who had asked him to verify the public relations requests of two of his colleagues.
The issue came to light on October 23, 2018, when Teo approached a subordinate to check the public relations status in the system and told him that he was following up on a friend’s request.
Later, Teo’s superior was alerted and ICA management was notified that the information should not be disclosed to outsiders.
An internal audit was conducted on Teo’s work account, where it was learned that he had performed several unauthorized evaluations that were not part of his job.
It was intercepted by ICA on December 19, 2018.
Both Teo and Loo have not returned the S $ 1,500 they received from Tey. Loo claimed that he spent the money on daily bills and expenses.
