SINGAPORE: An Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer who was found not guilty on a few charges of graft – involving him receiving a massage and sexual services from a woman – had his acquittal overturned on Tuesday (Mar 11).
On appeal at the High Court, Teo Hwee Peng was instead found guilty of the three corruption charges, which related to Chinese national Cheng Wenjuan.
In these charges Teo attempted to obtain S$1,500 (US$1,100), a free massage and sexual services, and agreed to accept an unspecified amount of cash from Cheng, who died of suicide in August 2021.
In addition to these three charges, Teo was tried on another nine charges of graft relating to another Chinese national, Liang Qinglan, whom he received cash, cash loans and free sex from in exchange for immigration advantages and assistance between 2018 and 2019.
These involved Teo arranging for Liang, a prostitute, to be issued with a Special Pass on Oct 16, 2018 and continuing to assist her with immigration matters afterwards.
A lower court judge found Teo guilty of eight of these charges but acquitted him of one. This acquittal was not appealed.
Teo was sentenced to two years and nine months’ jail and a penalty of S$2,634 on Aug 21, 2023.
On Tuesday, the prosecution sought to appeal the acquittal on the three charges relating to Cheng, while Teo’s lawyer Narayanan Vijya Kumar argued against his client’s conviction.
Justice Vincent Hoong, who heard arguments from both sides over the morning, then dismissed the defence’s appeal but allowed the prosecution’s appeal.
ARGUMENTS
Arguing against his client’s conviction, Mr Narayanan sought to present Liang as an unconvincing and inconsistent witness.
He pointed out that in the only charge that his client was acquitted of relating to Liang, the woman claimed that she had sex with Teo in a hotel.
However, an investigating officer had found that Teo’s name was not on the records of people entering and exiting the hotel.
The objective evidence showed that Teo had not gone to the hotel, but the prosecution proceeded on the charge, Mr Narayanan said.
This was “not a fair prosecution”, said the lawyer, suggesting that Liang could have been lying.
Mr Narayanan suggested that his client had been cultivating sources who would help him solve cases. Teo had plans to return to the intelligence unit within the ICA, and his boss had been persuading him to start a new unit at Woodlands Checkpoint, where Teo had been working at the time of the offences.
It was in this context that one of Teo’s sources had contacted him about Liang’s case, the lawyer said.
Rebutting this, Deputy Public Prosecutors David Menon, Andrew Chia and Jheong Siew Yin said: “Not only is Teo’s appeal against conviction devoid of merit, it further requires this court to believe Teo’s incredible assertion that he identified a vulnerability in ICA’s operations, crafted a scheme to exploit it for the benefit of strangers (i.e., the overstayers), and expected nothing in return.”
They said that Liang provided a highly detailed, consistent, and compelling account of her interactions with Teo. Teo’s appeal was fixated on minor inconsistencies, they said.
In its arguments for the acquittals to be reversed, the prosecution said the judge from the lower court had failed to consider the totality of the evidence behind the charges.
The judge mischaracterised Liang’s testimony as hearsay evidence, and had mistakenly placed excessive weight on the fact that Cheng’s statements were untested in trial, the prosecution said.
Justice Hoong agreed with the prosecution that the judge had not erred in his conviction of Teo on eight of the charges.
He dismissed Teo’s argument that he had helped Liang get a Special Pass to obtain information from her on behalf of ICA, calling this an “afterthought”.
Justice Hoong also agreed with the prosecution that material amounts of Liang’s testimony was not hearsay, but direct evidence that should have been considered by court.
The judge found Cheng’s statement to be “unusually convincing”.
Both sides will file their submissions on sentencing and arguments will be heard at a later date.
As of 25 Nov 2020, Teo was still interdicted from service.
“The Immigration & Checkpoints Authority takes a zero tolerance stance on corrupt officers. All ICA officers are expected to maintain a high standard of integrity at all times,” said ICA.
“Officers who break the law will be severely dealt with accordingly.”
