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Two men jailed for under-declaring passengers’ excess baggage in exchange for bribes

SINGAPORE — Their job was to assist passengers at airline Scoot’s check-in counter in Changi Airport, and charge them a fee for excess baggage.

Two customer service associates working at Scoot’s check-in counter under-declared the weight of passengers’ check-in baggage in exchange for bribes.

Two customer service associates working at Scoot’s check-in counter under-declared the weight of passengers’ check-in baggage in exchange for bribes.

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SINGAPORE — Their job was to assist passengers at airline Scoot’s check-in counter in Changi Airport, and charge them a fee for excess baggage.

Instead, the two customer service associates under-declared the weight of passengers’ check-in baggage in exchange for bribes.

Ayyadurai Karunanithi, 48, was sentenced to nine weeks’ jail and ordered to pay a S$500 fine on Friday (April 26), after he pleaded guilty to one charge of corrupt transaction with agents.

Gerizim Kirubai Raj Deved, 35, was sentenced to seven weeks’ jail and fined S$630, after pleading guilty to the same charge.

Their offences, committed separately, came to light after a report by The New Paper last July triggered police investigations.

The newspaper reported that touts were seen at the airport offering passengers lower rates for excess luggage than what they would have to pay at the Scoot check-in counter.

AYYADURAI’S CASE

Ayyadurai, an Indian national, was employed by UBTS, a logistics service provider.

The Singapore permanent resident was first approached by a man named Saravanan Muthuraja at Changi Airport MRT Station on April 8 last year.

Saravanan told Ayyadurai that he and his friends flew to India at least three times a week on Scoot flights and asked if Ayyadurai could help them. Ayyadurai turned down the request.

Days later, Saravanan approached Ayyadurai again while the latter was on duty at Scoot’s check-in counter.  At the time, Saravanan was checking in for a Scoot flight to Trichy in India.

Ayyadurai found that Saravanan’s check-in luggage exceeded his baggage limit by 5kg, and informed him that he would be charged S$20 a kilogramme for the extra weight.

Saravanan told Ayyadurai that he was unable to repack as the baggage contained electronic items, and asked for a waiver of the excess baggage fees. Feeling sympathetic, Ayyadurai agreed.

Saravanan later pushed S$30 into Ayyadurai’s pocket, telling him to keep it. The court heard that Ayyadurai understood he had been bribed for waiving the fees.

Three days later, Saravanan approached Ayyadurai at the check-in counter — this time, with a friend. Ayyadurai found the friend’s baggage to be overweight by about 5kg.

Saravanan then offered to “help” Ayyadurai if he waived the excess baggage charges.

Ayyadurai agreed and did not levy the excess baggage charges in return for S$15.

Ayyadurai also gave his contact number to Saravanan so that he could be contacted in future for such arrangements.

After that, Saravanan would check with Ayyadurai to see if he was on duty. If so, he would inform Ayyadurai that someone he knew would be checking in and he would let Ayyadurai know the amount of excess baggage.

Saravanan would then meet Ayyadurai at various locations around Changi Airport to pass him the bribes.

From April 12 to May 30 last year, Ayyadurai received up to S$600 in bribes.

GERIZIM’S CASE

Gerizim — an employee of ground-handling firm Sats’ subsidiary, Sats Asia Pacific Star — was approached by Gajendran Ramesh, an Indian national, in January last year.

Gajendran told Gerizim, a Singaporean, that he bought electronics and IT products in Singapore to sell in Malaysia. He complained that Scoot’s excess baggage charges were very high and offered to grease Gerizim’s palms if he under-reported his baggage weight.

They struck an agreement. Gajendran would pay Gerizim S$3 for every kilogramme that was under-reported.

Thereafter, whenever Gajendran flew from Singapore to Trichy on Scoot flights, he would approach Gerizim’s counter. Gerizim would under-report Gajendran’s baggage weight in the check-in system.

Gerizim accepted at least S$630 in bribes from Gajendran between January and July last year.

‘RISK TO SINGAPORE’S REPUTATION’

Calling for 10 weeks’ imprisonment for Ayyadurai and eight weeks’ imprisonment for Gerizim, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) David Koh said that their actions could potentially hurt confidence in the administration of public services in Singapore.

The risk was that foreigners travelling in and out of Singapore would see such activities as being “business as usual” in Singapore, DPP Koh said.

The prosecution pushed for a higher sentence for Ayyadurai as he had aided Saravanan, who had referred other passengers to him.

Both Saravanan and Gajendran are not in Singapore.

Under the Prevention of Corruption Act, Ayyadurai and Gerizim could have been jailed up to five years and fined up to S$100,000.

Related topics

Changi Airport Scoot bribery crime excess baggage

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