21-year-old Dang Mai Huyen Trang, a performing artist from Vietnam who was caught moonlighting at a bar, attempted to bribe a Singapore police officer with $100 so that he wouldn’t take any action against her.
The sergeant, a 24-year-old sergeant of the ground response force, refused the bribe, resulting in the arrest of Trang in the early hours of November 5, 2022.
Trang pleaded guilty in court on Friday (16 June) to a corruption charge and received a one-week prison sentence.
Background
During the incident, Trang held a valid work permit as a performing artist for a company called De Koma, which specializes in entertainment establishments.
On November 5, 2022 at about 1.45am, Trang was working on the side at Fusion Eight, a bar located in the basement of Fook Hai Building on South Bridge Road, when a police officer and two colleagues conducted an enforcement operation.
According to Deputy Public Prosecutor Brian Tan, “Suddenly, someone shouted ‘Police, run!’ in Vietnamese, and the accused fled the pub with other women.
As the officers approached Fusion Eight, they witnessed the accused and the other females running out, prompting the three police officers to split up and pursue them.
The police officer caught up with Trang and another Vietnamese woman in a corridor and requested their identification cards to perform further checks.
At that point, Trang took out a $50 bill from her bag and attempted to hand it to the officer, who declined the offer. Undeterred, she retrieved an additional $50 from her bag, offering a total of $100 to the officer.
The officer rejected her offer for the second time, resulting in her arrest at approximately 4:20 a.m.
During subsequent questioning, Trang admitted her awareness that offering money to police officers was illegal and acknowledged her attempt to offer cash to the ground response force sergeant in order to avoid arrest.