Man jailed for trying to bribe cop with job

Faced with the possibility of a fine and demerit points for driving carelessly, 69-year-old Ang Tiong first pleaded for leniency with the Traffic Police officer who was issuing him a summons.

When he failed, the vice-chairman of apparel supplier Glit Holdings then offered the officer a job.

For that offer, the businessman, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to a week in jail yesterday, despite his lawyer, Mr Jason Lim, arguing for a hefty fine.

The incident involving Ang, who could have been fined up to $100,000 and/or jailed for up to five years for corruption, occurred in the early afternoon of March 12.

That was when Corporal Jeremy Seet Ban Kok caught him driving his black Mercedes-Benz carelessly in MacPherson Road and signalled him to pull over.

After handing over his driving licence, Ang told Cpl Seet that he knew he did wrong and was sorry, saying he was in a rush to attend a meeting with an American company.

He then pleaded for a chance, but Cpl Seet said he would be issuing him a summons, and the penalty for the offence was a $150 fine and six demerit points.

Upon hearing that, Ang explained how he was issued a summons recently and had accumulated 12 demerit points. Under the law, a driver who has not been suspended previously faces a driving ban of 12 weeks after accumulating 24 demerit points.

He urged Cpl Seet to issue him with a summons for any other offence which did not attract demerit points, but was told this was not possible.

Ang then said that as they were both Chinese, they "should help each other''.

When Ang got his licence back, he grabbed Cpl Seet's wrist, took out his name card and insisted that he accept it.

He told the corporal that he could give him a job in his company, which employs more than 100 people. He also said that no one would know if Cpl Seet did not issue him the summons.

Cpl Seet reported the bribery incident to his operations room immediately.

This article by The Straits Times was published in MyPaper, a free, bilingual newspaper published by Singapore Press Holdings.

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