Security guard pleads guilty after dummy bomb oversight that sparked emergency response

SINGAPORE: A security officer on Thursday (Dec 12) admitted to leaving his guard post at an industrial park for more than five hours and forgetting to dispose of a dummy bomb in a red team exercise.

This led to the Singapore Police Force and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) deploying officers when a bomb threat was reported by a security guard on the next shift.

Durendran Vicknesh Venkatraman, 49, pleaded guilty to one count each of being absent from his deployed location without valid reason and defrauding his employer by making false entries in the duty logbook.

Another charge of lying to a police officer will be taken into consideration for sentencing, which was adjourned to Dec 17.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Dan Pan asked for a charge of causing alarm to the public by not disposing of the fake bomb to be stood down until after sentencing.

The court heard that Durendran was a licensed security officer of 13 years’ standing at the time of the offences. He was working part-time at One Imperial Security.

In late December 2023, the director of One Imperial asked two freelance external security consultants to conduct a red teaming exercise with the security officer on duty at Sing Industrial Complex.

The complex is located at Block 32, Ang Mo Kio Industrial Park 2.

Red-teaming is a simulated attack designed to test the effectiveness of security measures. The consultants informed the director that they would do the exercise in the early morning of Jan 5.

The plan was for one of them to distract the security guard while the other entered and left a suspicious parcel in a prominent area. They would then secretly take photos and videos of the guard handling the situation to assess him.

RED TEAM EXERCISE

On the night of Jan 4, Durendran was deployed to the complex. His shift was supposed to be from 8pm to 8am the next day, and he was the only officer on duty.

However, at around 11.20pm, he abandoned his post and left the complex to meet his friends at Oxley Tower, where they were drinking. They then went to get food.

Oxley Tower was more than 7km away from Sing Industrial Complex by car, Deputy Public Prosecutor Dan Pan pointed out to the court.

He added that Durendran did not inform anyone that he was leaving the guardhouse, and had no valid reason to be absent from his post.

Upon arriving at the complex at around 4.25am on Jan 5, the two security consultants realised that nobody was at the guardhouse and the main gate was left open.

After waiting several minutes, they called Durendran at the mobile number stated on the door of the guardhouse.

Durendran lied that he was nearby buying food and would be back in several minutes. In truth, he only started heading back from the vicinity of Oxley Tower after getting the call.

While waiting for Durendran to return, one of the consultants placed a dummy improvised explosive device (IED) at the motorcycle parking lot beside the guardhouse.

The fake IED comprised a brown paper bag containing red tubes tied together with black tape, with wires protruding from it.

They then returned to their car to wait for Durendran. But when he did not return by around 5am, they left the complex as they needed to get to other red-teaming sites.

The consultants informed One Imperial’s director that they were cancelling the red team exercise as the security officer was not at the guardhouse.

However, they forgot to remove the fake bomb before leaving. They also did not inform the director about the fake bomb.

TOLD TO REMOVE THE DUMMY BOMB

Durendran returned to the guardhouse at about 5.05am but did not see anyone. He left a missed call with the security consultants, using the number they had dialled him with earlier.

They returned his call at about 5.10am, after remembering the fake bomb.

They informed Durendran of the paper bag containing a fake bomb that was part of the red-teaming, and repeatedly instructed him to dispose of it. The security guard said he would do so.

However, he forgot about this and did not dispose of the fake bomb despite walking past it several times during the rest of his shift, the prosecutor said.

Durendran also did not inform the next security officer of what had happened when he handed over his shift at 8am.

Before ending his shift, Durendran recorded in the guard duty logbook that he had been patrolling or on duty inside the guardhouse for his entire shift, even though this was false.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE

When the next security officer took over, he noticed the fake bomb at the motorcycle parking lot. After taking it and placing it beside the guardhouse, he called the police reporting a suspected IED.

Officers from the Criminal Investigation Department, Serangoon Neighbourhood Police Centre, Ang Mo Kio Division Headquarters Investigation Branch and SCDF were dispatched to the complex.

The police K-9 Unit – which has dogs trained to find explosives – was also activated, although the activation was cancelled before they arrived at the scene. The Traffic Police was also engaged to divert traffic outside the complex.

More than 100 people were stopped from entering the complex or evacuated during bomb threat investigations that lasted one-and-a-half hours.

Durendran was eventually arrested on Apr 8.

A security officer who is absent from the place of deployment without any valid reason can be jailed for up to three months, fined up to S$2,000 (US$1,487) or both.

The punishment for falsifying records with the intention to defraud an employer is up to 10 years in jail, a fine or both.