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Ex-retail consultant jailed for accepting S$180 in bribes to leak Singtel customer details

SINGAPORE — While working as a retail consultant at the Singtel outlet in Parkway Parade shopping mall, Kelvin Foo Cheek Ann agreed to take bribes from an acquaintance in exchange for confidential customer details.

Kelvin Foo Cheek Ann, 32, is seen at State Courts on Dec 16, 2020.

Kelvin Foo Cheek Ann, 32, is seen at State Courts on Dec 16, 2020.

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SINGAPORE — While working as a retail consultant at the Singtel outlet in Parkway Parade shopping mall, Kelvin Foo Cheek Ann agreed to take bribes from an acquaintance in exchange for confidential customer details.

The gratification came in the form of a debt deduction of S$180, as Foo owed the other man money from their drinking sessions.

The customers whose details were leaked reported being harassed through calls, text messages and people showing up at their homes, demanding for money to be returned to various people.

On Tuesday (Jan 26), Foo was sentenced to 18 weeks’ jail for his actions. The 32-year-old Singaporean pleaded guilty to one corruption charge and five counts of unauthorised access to computer material.

District Judge Chay Yuen Fatt considered another 10 similar charges in sentencing Foo.

Foo was employed by Telecom Equipment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singtel, at the time of his offences between 2014 and 2017. 

A Singtel spokesperson previously told TODAY that he was immediately fired after the telco learned of his wrongdoing.

The court heard that sometime in 2015, his acquaintance, Lee Cheng Yan, asked him for help to retrieve customer details from the Singtel system using customers’ mobile numbers. Lee offered him S$20 for each number checked.

Lee made headlines last year when he was disqualified from driving for life and jailed more than four years for dragging a traffic police officer with his Maserati car for about 120m in an escape bid.

He was convicted after a judge rejected his claim that another man, whom he identified as Kelvin, was behind the wheel. He could not produce “Kelvin” as a witness in court, and it is unclear if he was referring to Foo.

Lee is out on bail pending an appeal, and faces more charges over the present case.

Foo had told Lee that he knew it was wrong of him to provide customer details, but eventually agreed to do it for S$20 each.

He went on to access the Singtel system 15 times to provide Lee with subscriber details. For example, he sent an image with a subscriber’s address to Lee in August 2016.

In February 2017, he sent Lee another image of a subscriber’s details — Ban Lee Seng Paints & Hardware Supplier.

He then agreed for Lee to deduct S$180 off the debt he owed the other man for their drinking sessions.

For agreeing to accept gratification, Foo could have been jailed up to five years or fined up to S$100,000, or both.

For unauthorised access to computer material, he could have been jailed up to two years or fined up to S$5,000, or punished with both.

Aside from Foo, two other men were charged with helping or bribing Lee to obtain more customer information from Singtel or StarHub. This includes Zhang Jiazheng, 38, a former customer care consultant at StarHub.

Related topics

bribe telecom court crime

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