SINGAPORE — The credibility of the former commissioner of the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) Peter Lim was further scrutinised in court today after the prosecution yesterday pointed out a string of inconsistencies in his testimonies in court and his statements to the Corrupt Practice Investigation Bureau (CPIB) early last year.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Kiat Pheng charged that Lim was “lying on the stand” and that he has been changing his defence since the time of the CPIB statements based on what Lim heard from the prosecution witnesses in court.

Mr Tan also put to Lim that he changed his defence whenever it suited his needs to avoid the conviction of the charge.

Lim, 52, is charged with corruptly obtained oral sex from Ms Pang Chor Mui on May 2 2010 in exchange for furthering the business interests of her ex-company Nimrod Engineering with the SCDF.

One point of contention that was brought up today was Lim’s intention when he called Ms Pang, 49, a divorcee, on May 2 for a lift. In his CPIB statements, Lim said that he intended to have sex with Ms Pang whom he claimed he was never “physically attracted to” that night “out of sympathy” after she “so pitifully begged” him for sex at one of their lunch dates.

However, Lim retracted his statement after testifying in court that he only wanted to “catch up” with Ms Pang and that if he had wanted to have sex with her, he would not have stopped at his condominium in Tanjong Rhu before directing her to the Stadium Walk car park where the sexual encounter took place.

It also emerged that Lim did not meet up with Ms Pang even when she tried to make arrangements following the one-off sexual encounter. Earlier, Lim had testified that it was because of their busy schedules that prevented them from meeting. But Lim said that as Ms Pang was placed “quite down” on his list of close friends, he did not see the need to change his schedule to facilitate an appointment with her even though he could have and that he left it to fate to decide if they could meet.

Lim will be re-examined by defence counsels Hamidul Haq and Bala Chandran this afternoon.