SINGAPORE: Curious about a case where young women had been arrested over potential drug offences, a police officer went to search their social media profiles and found one of them to be attractive.
Sean Teo then devised a plan to get in touch with her and convince her to have sex with him, and “be his woman”.
Teo, 29, pretended that he could help with her case even though he was completely uninvolved.
Teo pleaded guilty to one count each under the Computer Misuse Act, Official Secrets Act and Prevention of Corruption Act for accessing a system without authority, showing the woman a picture of the crime scene without authority and for soliciting gratification from her. He was sentenced to 13 months’ jail on Friday (Jun 20).
The woman in question had been part of a group that was arrested in a suite at Marina Bay Sands (MBS) hotel for suspected drug consumption on Nov 2, 2019.
She cannot be named due to a gag order.
On the same day, Teo, then a sergeant with the Singapore Police Force (SPF), was on patrol duty when he heard a radio transmission about the operation at MBS.
Later that day, a police officer who had been dispatched to the incident circulated a photo to a WhatsApp chat group which Teo was a part of. The chat group was for police officers from the Marina Bay Neighbourhood Police Centre.
The photo, which was of the crime scene, depicted a white powdery substance on a porcelain plate, an MBS access card, and a rolled up two-dollar note.
Teo saved the photo on his mobile phone. At the same time, he heard a radio transmission that several young women had been arrested.
Curious to know more, Teo accessed SPF’s command and control system, known as CUBICON II, to look at the incident report.
Teo then recorded the names and contact numbers of the women who had been arrested and saved them on his mobile phone.
Teo was not involved in the incident and had no authority to do what he did.
Later, Teo searched for the social media profiles of the women who had been arrested as he wanted to see how they looked like. He found one of them attractive and wanted to get to know her.
His initial effort to contact her on a chat application was in vain. Undeterred, Teo conducted a search on Telegram chat application and managed to find the woman’s account.
He added her contact, using a Telegram account with a fake name in a bid to conceal his identity.
On Dec 7, 2019, Teo contacted the woman, an insurance agent, on Telegram and managed to convince her to meet him under the pretence that he was interested in buying insurance from her.
He met her for dinner the next day and introduced himself as “James”. During the dinner, he revealed that he knew she had been arrested over the incident at MBS.
Subsequently, the two continued to discuss her arrest and its likely outcomes. Teo told the woman he could help her by using his connections with senior officers at the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB).
When the woman expressed doubt about his ability to help, Teo showed her the crime scene photograph, which was enough to convince her.
“(Teo) told (the woman) that he had friends in CNB, and that he was aware of cases where subjects with connections in CNB could have their urine test results fabricated,” court documents stated.
“To do this, male subjects had to pay money, while female subjects could either pay money or sleep with the IO (investigation officer). None of this was true. The accused was not personally aware of any instance where CNB investigations had been resolved in this way.”
ASKED FOR SEX
Teo then said he could help the woman if she was willing to sleep with him. She replied that she would think about it.
After this meeting, the pair continued to exchange messages, during which Teo would remind the woman that he could help her, and kept trying to solicit a sexual and romantic relationship with her.
“The accused repeatedly asked (the woman) to ‘be his woman’ and told (her) that she could sleep with him instead of sleeping with the CNB IO.
“On one occasion, the accused tried to convince (the woman) to meet him on the false pretext that he had confidential information from the CNB IO that was not safe to tell her over Telegram messages, and he had to tell her in person,” the prosecution said.
To conceal his deeds, Teo told the woman not to tell anyone about their conversations and also deleted his chats with her.
After his offences came to light, Teo told investigators that he was motivated by lust.
Deputy Public Prosecutors David Menon and Jonathan Tan sought a jail term of between 15 and 18 months for Teo, against the defence’s proposed jail term of 12 months. Teo was represented by lawyer Kalidass Murugaiyan.
The prosecution said the offence was clearly premeditated and Teo had actively solicited corrupt gratification for himself.
“By abusing his position as a police officer, the accused has caused reputational harm to SPF. But the accused compounded this harm when he told (the woman) that he knew senior officers at CNB who could be bribed.
“The accused also claimed that urine test results could be fabricated if the right ‘connections’ were made. This was a baseless claim that had the potential to harm CNB’s reputational integrity,” Mr Menon and Mr Tan said.
