A RETIRED police detective cooked up an ingenious "insurance scheme" for gambling dens by promising to pay their fines if they were caught.

Ong Swee Choon, 52, was yesterday fined S$20,000 and ordered to pay a S$2,400 penalty for receiving a S$2,400 bribe from gambling den operator Yeo Lai Kim.

Ong, who had retired from the Criminal Investigation Department's Commercial Crime Division in February 1990, had received the bribe through a third party at Sims Avenue between June 1 and 30, 1993.

He had originally faced 30 charges which were joined into one count. Ong had already been fined S$20,000 for a series of related offences after a trial in June 1995.

Deputy Public Prosecutor David Quark Kok Sin told the court yesterday that the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau received information in 1993 that a group of police officers was setting up a "gambling den insurance scheme" which promoters in Geylang were encouraged to participate.

In April 1993, a few days after Yeo had started a gambling den with his partner at Sims Avenue, he was asked if he was keen to take up Ong's "insurance scheme".

Premiums were S$80 a session.

Under the scheme, the DPP said, Ong would pay the court fines imposed on all "insured" parties caught gambling in the den, up to S$10,000.

When Yeo learnt that Ong was operating the scheme, he agreed to take part as he knew that Ong was an ex-CID detective.

"He felt that the daily payments made to the accused was worth the value because he was sure that the latter had connections with his ex-colleagues who were still in the police force," the DPP said.

Yeo believed that Ong would protect his gambling den by making sure that they would not be raided, or at least not so often.

The court heard that no one was arrested or charged in court for gambling in his den that month. Ong could have been fined up to S$100,000 and jailed for up to five years.

Source: The Straits Times Interactive, Singapore, APR 25 1997.

A POLICE corporal took $37,000 in "protection money" from a woman from February 1994 to March 1995, and cheated nine others of $97,000 up to October 1995.

Yesterday, Koh Cher Kang, 40, was sentenced to five years' jail on three corruption charges and five of cheating.

He also has to pay $30,900 as penalties for bribes received or be jailed another five months.

The district court also took into consideration nine other corruption charges, 101 cheating charges, and two of threatening to kill the woman, Lim Lee Huang, in 1995.

While he was posted at the Punggol neighbourhood police post, Koh found out in 1993 that Lim operated illegal horse-racing and electronic pay-out game machines behind her house, near Woodbridge Hospital.

A few days before Chinese New Year on Feb 10, 1994, he visited her and asked for a token of appreciation, for his "help" in her business.

After discussing this with her partner, Oh Lee Tee, they gave him a $300 hong bao.

In March, he demanded $600 a month to "protect" her. She stopped paying him a year later when her business suffered, but loaned him $30,000.

Koh also found out in 1994 that she was letting out land at the corner of Lorong Renjong and Lorong Buang Kok. He became her agent, in return for a 25 per cent commission. But in July that year, Koh lied to a potential tenant, Mr Choo Thiam Huat, saying he was the landlord. He did the same to eight others between March 1994 and October 1995, and cheated them of between $30 and $4,200 a month in rent.

Koh is a first offender. The maximum penalty for corruption is five years' jail and a $100,000 fine, and seven years' jail and a fine for cheating.

Both Lim and Oh have been dealt with in court.

Source: The Straits Times Interactive, Singapore, MAY 06 1997.

MORE than 2,300 Ecstasy pills were seized on Friday in what was the biggest seizure of the drug here this year. Twenty-four sharp, gleaming parangs and other weapons, and almost S$5,000 in cash were also seized, and three men were arrested, the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said yesterday. At a press conference its acting deputy director Lim Chei Yoo said that police, acting on a tip-off, had raided Hotel 81 in Lorong 18, Geylang on Friday at 10:30 am.

Two men were arrested in one of the rooms: a part-time private investigator, aged 28, and a pimp, aged 33.

Thirty-seven ecstasy pills in a waist pouch and travel bag, as well as some cannabis and an improvised pipe for smoking the drug were found in the room.

Police alerted the CNB, which then arrested another man at the hotel at about 11.45am.

The unemployed man, aged 26, was a suspected drug trafficker, who was carrying 100 Ecstacy pills.

He later led officers to his rented room at a terrace house in Lorong 8, Geylang, where another 2,231 Ecstasy pills were found in a Milo tin.

They also found 24 parangs, a dagger and a knuckle-duster.

Said Deputy Superintendent Lim: "The success of this case is the result of the public and we would like to thank this person for giving valuable information."

Speaking to the Strait Times later, he said that it was believed the man was part of a syndicate which supplied the Ecstacy pills to discotheques and KTV lounges in the Geylang and Orchard Road areas.

Referring to the raid, he said: "This is another case of a successful joint operation between the police and the CNB.

"It should serve as astrong signal that the CNB will continue to hit out at all traffickers, pushers and abusers."

The bureau is investigating where the pills came from, and how long the syndicate had been operating.

The pills from Friday's seizure came in a palette of bright colors, including yellow, red, green and brown.

Colors and symbols such as question-marks and butterflies, which are stamped on the pills, contribute to their street names: "Guess", "Butterfly", "Red Rose" and "Super Brown".

The pills are generally sold for between S$30 and S$60 each, depending on their quality and potency or how "high" they can make the abuser.

Those found guilty of trafficking in Ecstasy face a maximum of 20 years' jail and 15 strokes of the cane.

Source: The Straits Times Interactive, Singapore, MAR 23 1997.

AN UNEMPLOYED man was yesterday fined a record S$9.25 million for smuggling two tonnes of cigarettes from Batam in the space of 2-1/2 months.

Fong Weng Liong, 42, who was also jailed for two years, will have to serve an additional five years, three months and 20 days in jail if he cannot pay up.

He was one of five men involved in the smuggling. Together, they were fined a total of S$27.11 million.

Fong was behind an elaborate operation which involved landing a contraband-loaded motorised sampan on a secluded beach within the Keppel Harbour yard.

Three security guards who let him in and out of the restricted area, and a driver of the van which ferried the contraband, were also caught.

In all, Fong smuggled eight consignments, totalling 10,100 cartons, between Feb 8 this year and Tuesday, before he was nabbed by undercover Custom officers.

He evaded paying duty and tax amounting to S$245,329 on the smuggled cigarettes worth S$434,300.

The four men who helped him commit the offenses were fined between S$3.74 million and S$4.9 million each.

As none can pay the fines, they face jail terms instead.

Subramani Munusamy, 35, a driver, and Keppel Corporation security guard Benedict Soosai alias Benedick Susay, 58, will serve five years.

Keppel security guard Bidin Hussain, 48, will serve four years and five months; his colleague, Krishna Kandasamy, 46, a Malaysian, three and nine months.

All five men pleaded guilty on Thursday. The court heard that Fong got the cigarettes from a middleman, who in turn got them from an Indonesian referred to in court only as Ramli.

Each time, he met Ramli at the World Trade Centre and paid him in cash for the previous shipment, and ordered the next. He paid Ramli between S$12 and S$12.50 per carton, and sold them for S$17 each.

The middleman was paid between S$3,000 and S$3,500 per consignment, for arranging for delivery to Keppel's shipyard in Telok Blangah Road.

It was he who hired Subramani last June to help Fong unload from the boat and load it onto his van.

Subramani, who was paid S$1,000 per shipment, bribed the security guards with S$450 to let them use the shipyard for the deliveries.

Fong would park his van at a carpark in Seah Im Road. From there, he delivered smaller quantities on his scooter. District Judge Seng Kwang Boon passed the sentences on Fong for 16 charges of smuggling and four charges of possession.

He faced another two charges of selling the cigarettes to Tay Beng Kwoung, who will be dealt with in court at a later date.

Source: The Straits Times Interactive, Singapore, APR 26 1997.

A TRUCK driver was caught otside a nightclub at Apollo Hotel with two packets of cannabis mixture. A urine test on him also showed traces of cannabis mixture.

In a district court on Monday, Koh Teck Heng, 36, admitted possessing and consuming a controlled drug.

He was jailed for 18 months. He could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined $20,000.

He was arrested in the early hours of Aug 29 last year, at the entrance of Tiananmen KTV & Lounge.

His lawyer, Mr Richard Lim, said in mitigation that Koh was not a hardcore drug addict and started smoking cannabis only after a nightclub hostess offered him cigarettes containing the drug.

He said the client knew the cigarettes contained cannabis but he wanted to please the hostess, so he continued to smoke them.

The lawyer said that Koh had just bought the packets from a supplier who was introduced to him by the hostess.

Koh used to be the breadwinner, he said, supporting his elderly parents as well as his wife and her 20-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.

He added that Koh had quit his job after his arrest, and his wife of 17 years now had to work as a shop assistant to support the family.

Source: The Straits Times Interactive, Singapore, JAN 01 1998.

By Elena Chong
COURT CORRESPONDENT

A POLICE station inspector, accused of shoplifting and threatening two supermarket staff members with a gun, denied that he had pointed his service revolver at them.

Lim Kok Thai, 43, who was giving his defence, said he had threatened to kill only himself by pointing the gun at his own right temple.

He said that he had lost his senses that day and had meant to kill himself if the men did not give him his identity card back.

'I lost control. I did not point my revolver at them. Within a split second, I pointed my gun at my own right temple. I told them to give me back my IC. They just ignored me and I told them not to force me to shoot myself,' he said.

Lim was detained on May 20 last year, for alleged theft, by security officer Tan Yong Liang, 38, outside ABC Supermarket at Block 845 Yishun Street 81.

He allegedly stole two bottles of mineral water, a bottle of ketchup and a packet of biscuits, worth about $4 in all.

He was alleged to have then used his revolver to threaten both Mr Tan and floor manager Wong Kam Kiat, 30, a Malaysian, demanding that they open the office gate and let him out.

Lim, who was attached to the Criminal Investigation Department's Secret Societies Branch, is married with two sons, aged 11 and 14.

He told District Judge Mavis Chionh that in mid-1997, his wife was having a 'cold war' with him.

'I was very frustrated and went drinking till midnight with my friends,' he said.

During this time, he got to know a waitress called Anita at a karaoke lounge in Admiralty House. She later gave birth to his son.

Lim said his wife found out about the love child and their relationship worsened. His in-laws also gave him trouble, he added.

He said he lost contact with his mistress and son, and felt as if life was meaningless.

He also felt very frustrated and unappreciated at work.

On May 20 last year, he was supposed to go to work, but drove to a Yishun carpark.

He then went to the supermarket but did not know when and why the items ended up in his pockets. He 'suddenly awoke' and realised something was wrong when someone grabbed him by the shoulder.

While the security officer was leading him to a second-floor office, he begged the man to give him a chance.

Once in the office, Lim knelt before Mr Tan and Mr Wong and pleaded, but they would not let him off.

He then took the revolver from his left ankle strap.

Lim broke down in court when he explained that he did not kill himself because of his children.

The trial continues.

Source: The Straits Times Interactive, Singapore, FEB 26 2002.