A businessman was jailed for one week on Tuesday for offering a bribe to a traffic cop in return for not taking action against him for a traffic offence.

Ang Tiong, 69, the vice-chairman of Glit Holdings, pleaded guilty to corruptly offering a bribe in the form of a job offer to Corporal Jeremy Seet Ban Kok along MacPherson Road on March 12 this year. Cpl Seet was patrolling MacPherson Road that day when he saw Ang driving his black Mercedes-Benz car carelessly. He signalled Ang to pull over.

Cpl Seet asked for his driving licence and identification card and told Ang that he had committed a traffic offence of careless driving. Ang admitted that he was wrong and explained that he was in a rush to attend a meeting with an American company, He then pleaded with Cpl Seet to give him a chance.

Cpl Seet said he would be issuing Ang a summons, and the penalty for the offence was a fine of $150 and six demerit points. Ang again pleaded for leniency, He said he was issued a summons recently and had accumulated 12 demerit points. He asked the officer to reduce the penalty to three demerit points or issue him with a summons for any other offence which did not attract demerit points, but Cpl Seet said it was not possible.

Ang continued to plead with Cpl Seet, saying he was 70 years old. But this cut no ice with the cop, who said he had to do his duty. After the officer had handed Ang his driving licence, Ang grabbed the officer's wrist, took out his name card and insisted that Cpl Seet accept it. He told him that he could give him a job in his company where he has more than 100 employees working for him. He also said that no one would know if he did not issue him the summons.

Cpl Seet reported the bribery incident and Ang's careless driving the incident to his operations room immediately.

Ang could have been fined up to $100,000 and/or jailed for up to five years for corruption.