A SENIOR civil servant was jailed for two years on Monday for abusing his authority to help a China woman enter Singapore unlawfully and other offences.

Thong Sing Hock, 50, a Senior Assistant Commander (Ground Ops) at Tuas Checkpoint, admitted to abetting the woman to enter Singapore with a misleading passport, harbouring her, and accessing the office computer for personal purposes.

Thong, who has been suspended on half-pay since May 2006, admitted to nine charges with 18 others considered during his sentencing.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Cyrstal Ong said that Thong was investigated by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau in 2006 for abusing his position to help Song Qinghua also known as Song Qi, 38, to enter Singapore.

Song came to Singapore in 1997 to work and was subsequently jailed three weeks in August 2001 for overstaying.

After she was repatriated, she changed her name to Song Qi and obtained a new PRC identity card and passport in 2002.

Sometime between late 2002 and early 2003 in Beijing, she came to know Thong who was there for a visit. They exchanged phone numbers and kept in contact after he returned to Singapore.

Subsequently, he visited China several times and had an intimate relationship with Song. She also visited him between 2003 and 2006.

DPP Ong said in Feburary 2004, Thong, the No 3 man at Tuas checkpoint, became suspicious of Song as he had heard her being called Song Qinhua instead of Song Qi. He questioned her and she told him she had been previously charged and convicted of overstaying in Singapore.

The court heard that he had helped her enter Singapore illegally by acting as her sponsor in her visa application and bought her air tickets.

In December 2004 the two also spent time together in Bangkok. He harboured her by renting a place for her to stay on each of the two occasions - January and December 2005.

District Judge Jasvender Kaur said Thong must have known better than most persons that entering the country with false pasports and particulars put the whole passport system into jeopardy.

She said it was inevitable that the matter had to be marked by a significant sentence. She said the only real mitigating factor was his plea of guilt.

Thong's lawyer, Mr Choo Si Sen, had pointed out that there was no material loss and the married father of two did not make any money.

But Judge Kaur said it was not how much or how little Thong had gained but how he had abetted Song to undermine the immigration system.