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38 year old Liang Qinglan was sentenced to 25 weeks of jail and fined a total of $8,000 today (17 Dec) for bribing an Immigrations & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer for a special pass as she has overstayed in Singapore.
Liang, who is a Chinese citizen by birth, gave ICA officer 48y.o Teo Hwee Peng “extra services” for free and also a red packet of 188.88RMB, SGD2100 in cash and loans of about 7,000RMB.
Teo on the other hand, has already been charged for accepting bribes from Liang and another Chinese National.
Liang had pleaded guilty to four charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act as well as the Women’s charter.
There are also eight similar charges taken into consideration against her during her sentencing.
Worked as a prostitute
She initially came to Singapore and had her social visit pass expired on July 2018 and worked as a prostitute.
She was desperate to find a way to extend her stay, and was introduced to Teo by a friend on WeChat.
The friend claimed that Teo could help her get a special pass which as typically issued by ICA or the Ministry of Manpower.
Teo’s part of the plan
Liang eventually contacted Teo, who asked for her passport details, address and also an iPhone 10 in return for getting her a special pass.
Between July and October 2018, Teo also showed up at her place of residence and had intercourse with Liang without paying for the services.
Liang had however not asked him for money in return for the services.
After their wild adventures, Teo explained to Liang on how he could help her and would arrange for her to be arrested.
He was previously part of ICA’s intelligence branch and had stayed in contact with some of his contacts who he used to work with and helped him with identifying potential offenders.
He passed Liang’s information to one of his ex contacts who passed it on to an ICA officer.
Liang was subsequently arrested on 16 Oct 2018 and fully cooperated with the authorities.
She also paid a fine for overstaying and was given a special pass.
After receiving the pass, she informed Teo.
Met up in the days after receiving the pass
Days after, Teo contacted Liang in the hope of receiving more “goodies”.
Liang paid for Teo’s meals for a day when they went out to JEM at Jurong East, and even offered to buy him the iPhone 10 he had requested earlier.
However, Teo declined the offer and asked for $2,100 to $2,200 from Liang.
Later on, Teo contacted Liang for a loan which she obliged to as she feared that he would revoke her special pass and would need his help again on the pass’ expiry.
She then sent him 5,000RMB via WeChat.
Advertised services online
Liang had began to advertise her services online last year after she was charged in November, and serviced about 90 people in a rented Jurong West HDB flat.
She paid 500RMB a month for these advertisements on three websites and charged her clients $120/hour for her services before Police officers raided her unit.
$8,000 worth of her earnings were sent back to China to her family.
Prosecution & Defense findings
The Deputy Public Prosecutor argued that there were several factors present in the case and they are of the repeated bribes which she offered and the receiving party of those bribes a public servant.
In Liang’s defense, her lawyer argued that Liang was used to Chinese customs in China where it not uncommon for people to give gifts to officials as a sign of appreciation for their help.
He added that Liang has now understand the laws in regards to bribery in Singapore and deeply regrets what she has done.
He also said in mitigation that Liang had a five year old son and an elderly mother back in China where she needs to support, and came to Singapore to provide her services as competition in China was rife and it would be hard for her to earn enough there.
Penalties
Those who are convicted of providing gratification whether it is in the giving or receiving end can be jailed up to five year and/or fined up to $100,000.
Image source: Google Maps