Yahoo News Man jailed for trying to bribe police officer after he was twice caught not wearing face mask
SINGAPORE — A man who tried to bribe a police officer to let him off after he was twice caught improperly masked during the COVID-19 circuit-breaker period was sentenced to four weeks’ jail on Friday (23 October).
Chen Long, 28, had offered a police officer $50 while being interviewed at a room in Boon Lay MRT station. The Chinese national, who is on a work permit, pleaded guilty to the corruption.
On 7 May, a patrol team consisting of four police officers from the Public Transport Security Command spotted Chen at the area close to the smoking corner of Boon Lay MRT station with his mask pulled down and covering his neck area and chin only.
Chen had finished work at California Laundry and was smoking a cigarette and drinking from a can of beer.
The patrol team then approached Chen and gestured to him to put on his mask properly. Chen complied, and the patrol team moved on.
Some 10 minutes later, the patrol team walked past the smoking corner again and spotted Chen talking on his mobile phone with his mask pulled down.
The patrol team decided to bring Chen to a room in the MRT station to interview him. In the midst of the interview, after asking the police officer how long the interview would take, Chen opened his wallet, showed the money in his wallet to the officer and offered $50 with the intention of bribing the officer to let him off. The acts were captured on the team’s body-worn camera.
Realising that Chen was trying to bribe him, the officer immediately signalled to Chen. He then asked Chen in Mandarin if the latter admitted to trying to bribe him. Chen replied “yes”.
The officer told Chen that bribery was a serious offence in Singapore, and Chen went silent. Another police officer then interviewed Chen asked what he was going to do with the $50 note. Chen replied that he wanted the officer and his team to take the money to buy some drinks and stop checking on him.
For the offence of not wearing a mask, Chen was issued a notice of composition of $300.
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