A police officer in Singapore was charged with seven counts of corruption and three counts of obstruction of justice on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022.
45-year-old Poo Tze Chiang allegedly received bribes totalling S$32,500 in the form of loans and cash.
Over 2019 and 2020, Poo received bribes from two individuals, Cordell Chan Yuen Kwang and Wang Huate.
The bribes were in exchange for Poo providing information and assistance to Chan and Wang regarding any police investigations against them.
In September 2019, another party Ng Chian Seng helped Chan and Wang by passing Poo a red packet containing $2,000 in Geylang. He was consequently charged for one count of corruption for his involvement.
On Aug, 5, 2020, Poo went out of his way to inform Chan that Wang would be detained if Wang reported for bail.
When the three of them were at a void deck in Bukit Batok, Poo also used his work privileges and flashed his police warrant card at two patrolling police officers so they would conduct further checks on Chan and Wang.
In another incident in November that year, Poo also alerted Chan about a colleague’s car in the area and advised him to head to a nearby coffee shop.
Singapore adopts a strict zero-tolerance approach towards corruption and has the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) which is the sole agency responsible for combating corruption in Singapore.
Poo could be jailed for up to five years and fined up to S$100,000 for each charge of corruption, and fined and jailed for up to seven years for each charge of obstruction of justice.
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