Former civil defence chief Peter Lim Sin Pang has asked his lawyers to drop the appeal against his six-month jail sentence for corruption.

This came after the 53-year-old met his legal team in prison yesterday.

"He wants to close this chapter and move on," lawyer Hamidul Haq told The Straits Times.

He added that Lim hopes to start life afresh after completing his jail term, which he began serving last week.

The former Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) commissioner was convicted in May of corruptly obtaining sex from a 49-year-old woman whose engineering company had later bid for a contract from his agency.

He also pleaded guilty to seven more corruption charges over trysts with two other women in their 40s. Both were working for companies that sold technology to SCDF.

During Lim's sentencing, District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim said that the court wanted to send a clear message that corruption would not be tolerated.

WALTER SIM