SINGAPORE: A man who offered S$30 to an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer as a bribe in 2024 was sentenced to three weeks’ jail on Thursday (March 27).
Chinese national Wei Shishan, 42, pleaded guilty to one charge under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Darren Sim said Wei came to Singapore in August 2024 to resolve some issues for a company he worked at.
Details of the company or his occupation were not stated in court documents.
When trying to clear immigration at Changi Airport, Wei failed the facial recognition scan.
When the ICA officer ran checks on Wei and asked for the duration of his visit, he lied and said he was in Singapore for leisure and would be staying for about 10 days.
But the ICA officer replied that this was contrary to his arrival card, where he stated he would be in Singapore for 29 days.
Wei was then taken to a waiting room, where he later came clean that he was in Singapore for work.
Afraid that he may be denied entry into Singapore, Wei told the officer that he could give him “coffee money” and pulled out $30 from his wallet, offering the cash to the officer.
The officer did not accept the money and Wei was later arrested.
Seeking three to four weeks’ jail, DPP Sim said: “The main sentencing principle is deterrence. Singapore’s zero-tolerance approach towards corruption is well-known and must be maintained at all costs.”
In mitigation, defence lawyer Han Wah Teng said his client has a pronounced speech impairment that manifests as both a persistent stutter and tics, and was unable to clearly articulate his situation.
"He believed that offering a small token – colloquially referred to as ‘coffee money’ – was a customary exchange.
"He was genuinely unaware that giving even a nominal sum of $30 constituted an offence under Singapore law," said Han, adding that the bribe offered was far too insignificant to suggest any involvement in a broader corrupt scheme. - The Straits Times/ANN
