SINGAPORE — Wanting to confirm his suspicions that his former male lover was staying in a hotel, a civilian officer from the Singapore Police Force posed as a policeman from the Criminal Investigation Department and lied to hotel employees that he was investigating a case.

Muhammad Rafi Kadir did this because he wanted to know the whereabouts of his former lover, who he suspected was at the hotel.

On Wednesday (July 31), the 35-year-old was sentenced to nine weeks’ jail after he pleaded guilty to cheating by personation.

Court documents did not give more details about Rafi’s relationship with his former lover.

At about 1pm on March 12 last year, Rafi arrived at a hotel on Sentosa Island wearing a cap and a black face mask.

He approached the hotel’s bellboy and showed him through his mobile phone a photograph of his former partner, asking if the bellboy had seen the person.

Rafi also opened his backpack and discreetly showed the bellboy a lanyard with the word “Police” on it. The lanyard was attached to Rafi’s employee pass.

At that time, Rafi was working as a welfare officer in the manpower branch of the Singapore Police Force.

While Rafi was speaking to the bellboy, a duty manager at the hotel felt suspicious about his conduct and went up to him to ask what he was doing there and if she could offer any help.

Rafi told her that he was leaving the hotel.

When probed by the duty manager again, he said that he was from the Singapore Police Force and that he was working on a case and conducting an investigation.

However, Rafi declined to show the duty manager a warrant card for identification when she asked.

The duty manager then told Rafi that there was a standard operating procedure for conducting a police investigation in the hotel and told him to go to the hotel’s security.

When she asked again to look at his pass, Rafi opened his backpack and discreetly showed his employee pass that was attached to the lanyard.

He then told her to keep his visit confidential.

Not convinced that Rafi’s pass was a warrant card, the manager asked him to leave the hotel or approach the hotel’s security department.

After he had left, the manager informed the hotel’s director of rooms, who then called the police.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Emily Koh said that Rafi had “misused” his civilian employee pass issued by the police to impersonate a police officer.

He did so to “induce the hotel staff into providing information to him for personal reasons… when he was in fact not conducting any police investigations, nor did he have any powers of investigation”, she added.

DPP Koh also said that Rafi had abused his position as a civilian officer and that his actions had a “high potential of harm to the reputation of the Singapore Police Force”.

In mitigation, Rafi’s lawyer, Mr Marcus Lim from Peter Ong Law Corp, said that the offence was a “one-off” and that Rafi never had any ill intentions.

Calling it a “crime of passion”, Mr Lim added that Rafi had committed the offence because he was “emotionally overwhelmed by his partner’s infidelity”.

Arguing that no harm was caused to the victims, namely the bellboy and the duty manager of the hotel, Mr Lim sought a maximum jail term of two weeks.

On this point, DPP Koh argued that no harm had been caused due to the duty manager’s own vigilance.

In delivering his sentencing remarks, District Judge Chay Yuen Fatt highlighted the aggravating factor that Rafi was a police officer — albeit not one who was vested with powers of investigation.

The judge said that Rafi’s act was likely to cause disrepute to the police force.

For cheating by personation, he could have been jailed for up to five years or fined, or both.