Cop who allegedly received bribes handed extra charges
A police officer charged with receiving $32,500 in bribes has been handed five more charges, allegedly for obtaining another $36,000 in bribes from an immigration offender.
Aside from the bribe, the police officer, Poo Tze Chiang, 46, is said to have cheated the offender of $10,000 by lying to him and saying that it was to make applications to government agencies about his case.
Poo, who was charged in Nov 2022 with seven counts of corruption and three counts of obstruction of justice, was on Jan 26 handed four more charges of corruption and one charge of cheating. He now faces 15 charges.
The immigration offender who allegedly gave him the bribe, Chinese national Chen Guangyun, 37, was also charged with four counts of corruption.
Between July 2019 and October 2019, Poo purportedly obtained bribes totalling $18,000 for himself or another unknown police officer from Chen, who was being investigated for offences under the Immigration Act.
The money was allegedly meant as inducement for Poo, or the other police officer, to help Chen reduce punishment or avoid prosecution for the offences.
Also, between August 2019 and January 2020, Poo is said to have received another $18,000 from Chen to help the latter remain in Singapore after being convicted of a criminal offence.
These offences were not specified, but Chen was eventually convicted and repatriated to China, said a police prosecutor in court on Jan 26. Charge sheets state Chen was sent out of Singapore in May 2020.
In September 2020, Poo also allegedly cheated Chen of $10,000, lying to him that Poo required the sum to apply to two Singapore government agencies for Chen to be granted permission to return to Singapore.
Chen purportedly entered Singapore again in September 2022 without a valid pass, for which he was charged with two fresh offences under the Immigration Act. This case is still pending.
In addition, Chen faces two counts of being drunk and incapable of taking care of himself in a public place, and punching another man in the wee hours of April 8, 2023, at 525 Serangoon Road.
Between 2019 and 2020, Poo is also said to have received bribes totalling $32,500 from two other men, Cordell Chan Yuen Kwang and Wang Huate.
The money was allegedly given so that Poo would provide information and assistance to Chan and Wang regarding police investigations against them.
Once in Aug 2020, Poo allegedly flashed his police warrant card at two police officers patrolling in the area, so that they would not conduct checks on Chan and Wang.
A nightspot owner, Ng Chuan Seng, 52, who helped two individuals to pass a red packet with a $2,000 bribe to Poo, was sentenced to five weeks’ jail in Sep 2023.
Poo is represented by Mr K. Jayakumar Naidu of Jay Law Corporation. Chen’s lawyer is Mr L. G. Robert.
Their cases have been slated for pre-trial conferences in February.
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