'Keep your money': $10 bribe for littering lands man in jail
A 33-year-old man who was caught littering and wanted to be let off the hook tried to bribe a National Environment Agency enforcement officer by giving her $10.
She rejected it and told him: “In Singapore, you cannot do this. Keep your money.”
Aung Moe Hlaing, a Myanmar national, was sentenced to 12 days’ jail on Oct 22 after he pleaded guilty to one charge under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Benjamin Low said two enforcement officers from Certis Cisco Auxiliary Police, who were attached to NEA, were conducting enforcement patrols on March 25 at Heartland Mall in Kovan to detect environment-related offences such as littering or spitting.
At around 9.40am, they saw Aung Moe Hlaing throwing a cigarette butt into the drain and informed him that he had committed an offence of littering.
When the officers asked if he could speak English, Aung Moe Hlaing replied that he was from Myanmar and spoke only a “little bit” of English.
The officers asked him for identification, but he asked them to give him a chance. One of the officers said they could not do so and repeated the request for his particulars.
She told him that if he did not have any identification on him, she would have to call the police to “come down and verify (his) particulars”.
When the officers could not get his particulars, Aung Moe Hlaing was told to wait for the police to verify his identity.
Upon hearing this, he took out a $10 note from his mobile phone cover and corruptly offered it to one of the officers so that she would not take any enforcement action against him and let him go, said DPP Low.
In footage from the officer’s body-worn camera, Aung Moe Hlaing can be seen putting his hands together and gesturing as he asked the officers for another chance.
Seeking two to three weeks’ jail, DPP Low said the manner in which the corruption offence was committed was brazen.
He added: “It is axiomatic that corruption offences are, and should continue to be, viewed with the greatest possible opprobrium. A deterrent sentence is thus called for in the present case.”
Arguing for a jail term of less than a week, defence lawyer Tania Chin of TSMP Law Corporation said her client has a poor command of English and was afraid when he heard the word “police” as he did not understand why they needed to be called to the scene.
“To Aung, who was born and raised in Myanmar, the police brought to mind images of torture and brutality, which would explain the fear and desperation he felt at the material time, which drove him to impulsively offer the $10 so that no enforcement action would be taken against him by the police,” said Ms Chin.
Offenders convicted of graft can be jailed for up to five years and fined up to $100,000.
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