SINGAPORE – Over eight years, two FairPrice employees worked together to obtain $523,000 in bribes from multiple suppliers of the supermarket chain.

Lim Kian Kok and his subordinate See Hock Lam, who are no longer working for the company, then split the amount equally between them, with each receiving $261,500.

They committed the offences from 2013 to 2020.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Pei Wei said on Friday that the pair had ordered larger quantities of fish and seafood from suppliers that bribed them.

She added: “This caused potential harm to... FairPrice and/or its customers, as the goods... purchased may not have been the best available.

“As the country’s largest supermarket chain, (FairPrice) serves a large sector of the Singapore population and the impact of corruption offences like the present may correspondingly be felt by many.”

Lim, 48, who used to be a senior team leader with the supermarket chain, was sentenced to four years and five months’ jail on Friday after he pleaded guilty to 12 graft charges.

He was also ordered to pay a penalty of nearly $290,000. He will have to spend an additional 580 days behind bars if he fails to pay the amount.

See, 70, then a team leader at the time of the offences, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of corruption.

His bail has been set at $40,000 and he is expected to be sentenced on April 10.

Other offenders linked to the suppliers were dealt with in court earlier.

They included Ngow Chun Siong, 44, who was then working for Fish Vision Agro-tech, and Heah Han Huat, 65, who ran Ocean Trust Trading.

DPP Tan told the court that See joined FairPrice in 1997 and later reported to Lim. See’s duties included helping Lim order crabs and prawns.

Lim, who is also known as Andrew, joined FairPrice in 2007 and oversaw its buying operations at Jurong Fishery Port when he became a senior team leader in 2013.

Lim also had the discretion to determine which suppliers to buy fish and seafood from, and how much to buy from them.

Shortly after he became a senior team leader, he approached See and asked the older man if he “wanted to make money”.

DPP Tan said: “Andrew told See that he intended to ask some of the suppliers at Jurong Fishery Port for money in return for purchasing more fish from them.

“He asked See to join him so See would support him in obtaining payments from suppliers... and would not complain to FairPrice about this arrangement.”

See agreed to the plan as he had a gambling habit and wanted to earn some cash. The two men then agreed to split the money equally between them.

The pair later approached four suppliers for the bribes.

On Friday, the DPP urged the court to sentence See to between 46 and 54 months’ jail, as well as a penalty of $261,500.

She added that See, who was not represented by a lawyer, had shared the ill-gotten gains equally with Lim.

Meanwhile, she asked for Lim to be given between 54 and 64 months’ jail, and a penalty of nearly $290,000, stressing that he had initiated the offences.

Lim was represented by lawyer Sng Kheng Huat, who was assisted by Mr Rajwin Singh Sandhu.

Mr Sng said that as a show of remorse, Lim had voluntarily handed $180,000 to the authorities.