SINGAPORE — A police officer convicted of receiving S$32,500 from secret society members in exchange for his protection was handed a 6.5-year jail term and a S$32,500 penalty on Friday (Aug 16). 

Poo Tze Chiang had received the bribes from gang members Cordell Chan Yuen Kwang and Wang Huate to shield them from police action.

The 46-year-old station inspector, who has been interdicted since Dec 7 in 2020, had earlier been found guilty of seven charges of bribery and three of obstructing the course of justice. He will be appealing his conviction and sentence.

Mr Wang, the gang member, had been charged with two counts of corruption. However, these charges were withdrawn following a stern warning in April.

He cannot be charged for the same offences since he was given a discharge amounting to an acquittal.

Court documents did not state the status of Chan's case.

The owner of a karaoke lounge, Ng Chuan Seng, 52, was sentenced to five weeks' jail last September for helping arrange a meeting between Poo, Mr Wang and Chan. He was also fined for not maintaining a record of some of his employees.

It was this meeting that "opened the floodgates", the prosecution said in its closing statement.

"Over the course of a year, the accused, who was perennially plagued by financial issues, exploited Cordell’s and Huate’s fear of being detained... to extract numerous bribes from them."

Poo faces four more corruption charges and a charge of cheating and dishonestly inducing a delivery of property.

These charges relate to S$18,000 in gratification he received to help one Chen Guangyun from China reduce punishment or avoid prosecution for immigration-related offences.

Poo also allegedly received S$10,000 by deceiving Chen into believing that he needed to pay that amount to apply for permission to return to Singapore.

In response to TODAY's queries on Friday, the police said that they will commence internal action against Poo.

They also said that Poo had been removed from frontline duties when his offences surfaced during their internal checks.

"The Singapore Police Force also rendered full assistance to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) in the course of their investigations."

HELPED GANG MEMBER AVOID DETENTION

Court documents showed that Poo joined the Singapore Police Force in 1995 and was posted to the Secret Society Branch in 2006.

Mr Wang and Chan had gotten into a drunken brawl on Sept 14 in 2019 at a nightclub along Orchard Road, resulting in Mr Wang's arrest.

As the duo feared police action, they met Poo at Ng's nightclub — Kiss KTV along Geylang Road — a few days later.

During this meeting, Mr Wang and Chan gave a red packet containing S$2,000 to Poo to help them "settle" the police case resulting from this brawl.

In exchange, Poo helped the duo evade police action on three occasions.

The first was in February 2020, after Mr Wang was detained at Woodlands Checkpoint and questioned by Secret Society Branch officers. He told Chan of the incident after he was released.

Court documents did not state why he was detained.

Chan then sought Poo's assistance, to which Poo asked for S$20,000. Mr Wang then gave Poo the money at the car park of HillV2, a shopping mall in Hillview, on Feb 22 that year.

In return, Poo called Chan to warn Mr Wang not to report for bail on Aug 5, 2020, because he would be detained if he did so. Chan then relayed the message to Mr Wang.

The prosecution said that this was the only time Mr Wang had failed to report for bail. He had also packed his belongings to prepare to go into hiding and obtained a medical certificate as a precaution.

Confused that Mr Wang later faced detention despite having bribed Poo, Mr Wang and Chan decided to meet Poo that night.

They met at the void deck of Poo's housing block in Bukit Batok and were discussing the situation when two other police officers spotted them from their patrol car. 

Having noticed that one of the men was tattooed, the officers decided to conduct a spot check. They parked their car and walked towards the trio.

Poo spotted them while they were "some distance away", and approached them first. He identified himself as a senior inspector from the Secret Society Branch, showed them his warrant card and claimed that he was conducting operations.

"The accused admitted to the CPIB that he was hoping to dissuade the two patrol officers from conducting a spot check on Cordell and Huate," the prosecution said.

He was successful in doing so and the patrol officers left.

PREVENTED POLICE ACTION

In August 2020 as well, the Secret Society Branch turned its attention to Chan. Chan approached Poo for help and gave the latter S$7,000 in bribes and S$2,500 in loans.

Chan had also given Poo loans of S$3,500 between November 2019 and September 2020 at Poo's request.

The exact details were not disclosed in court documents, but CPIB said in a press release on Friday that Poo had helped Chan evade the police sometime around Nov 25, 2020.

After having a meal together, Poo drove Chan to a car park in Bukit Batok where Chan had parked his car. That was when Poo noticed an unmarked car from the Secret Society Branch.

Poo helped Chan evade the police by telling him to head to a nearby coffee shop. Sometime later, Poo also told Chan that the police were still in the vicinity. 

Chan decided not to return to his car, but took a taxi home to avoid being apprehended. This allowed him to escape.

Deputy Public Prosecutors David Menon and Bryan Wong sought a sentence of 6.5 years and a penalty of S$32,500. 

Poo is represented by Mr K Jayakumar Naidu of Jay Law Corporation.

His bail was increased from S$115,000 to S$150,000 in light of Friday's sentence. He has filed an appeal against his conviction and sentence.

Any person convicted of corruption can be fined up to S$100,000, jailed for up to five years or both.

The maximum punishment for obstruction of justice is seven years' jail or a fine, or both.