Brompton bikes saga: Senior NParks official charged in court

SINGAPORE — National Parks Board (NParks) Assistant Director Bernard Lim Yong Soon, who was last year investigated by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) for his involvement in the procurement of 26 Brompton bicycles, was this morning (Aug 29) charged in court with one count of knowingly giving false information to public servants under Section 182 of the Penal Code. He was also charged with one count of abetting the same offence, by instigating Lawrence Lim Chun How, a Director of Bikehop Singapore Private Limited, to also knowingly provide false information to public servants. According to court documents, on July 18 last year, Bernard Lim, 41, allegedly told the Ministry of National Development (MND) Internal Audit Unit’s (IAU) Deputy Director Stacey Tee Hwee Teng and IAU Assistant Director Tan Choon Lin, as well as MND’s Senior Director of Corporate Development Felix Loh Chee Wai, that he did not have a personal relationship with Lawrence Lim. Bernard Lim allegedly lied to the MND officers that the first time he had met Lawrence Lim was at a meeting to discuss the delay by Bikehop in the delivery of a batch of Brompton bicycles to the NParks, knowing that by doing so, the MND officers would omit to investigate his personal relationship with Lawrence Lim in the course of the IAU’s internal investigations into NParks’ procurement of the 26 Brompton bicycles from Bikehop. And at a hawker centre along Shunfu road sometime between June to July last year, Bernard Lim also allegedly instigated Lawrence Lim to provide the same false information to the above two MND IAU officers, thereby abetting in the commission of the same offence. For the offence of giving false information to a public servant with the intention or knowledge that it would likely cause the public servant to omit anything which the public servant ought not to do or to omit if the true state of facts were given, Bernard faces up to one year in jail or a fine of up to S$5,000, or both. For abetting the offence to be committed, under the second charge, he faces the same penalty as per the offence. The case will be mentioned in court again on Sept 27.