SINGAPORE - A man accepted a DBS Bank employee’s offer to unlawfully obtain details of a woman from the bank’s customer information system.

Ang Kok How had given a loan of about $23,000 to the woman and wanted to get information about her when she failed to return the money in full.

Ang, 35, was sentenced to two weeks’ jail on Friday over an offence under the Computer Misuse Act for abetting Liong Yan Sin in making an unauthorised search on the bank’s customer information system.

Liong, then 32, who was also involved in other cases, was sentenced to 16 weeks’ jail in November 2022. The former DBS employee had earlier pleaded guilty to 10 charges under the Computer Misuse Act for accessing details of customers without authorisation.

Liong also admitted to six charges under the Banking Act for disclosing customer details to people, including his other friends. Another 42 charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

DBS had employed Liong as a collections officer from July 2016 to December 2018. As part of his job scope, he was given access to the information system, which enabled him to retrieve customer details. But the bank made it clear to him that he was not supposed to access customer details outside the scope of his duties.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Thiagesh Sukumaran said Liong and Ang knew each other through activities such as gambling and playing basketball.

The pair also knew a woman, known only as Kelly, who borrowed around $23,000 from Ang in September 2018.

She paid back a fraction of the amount but later became uncontactable. Court documents did not disclose the amount she paid.

Liong then asked Ang if he needed help to find her. Ang knew that Liong would have to conduct an unauthorised search on the bank’s customer information system to find Kelly’s details.

Despite this, Ang accepted the offer. On Sept 19, 2018, Liong searched the bank’s customer information system, obtained details about Kelly’s home address and workplace and shared the information with Ang.

The prosecution did not disclose if Ang managed to track her down.

DBS made a police report about the case on Dec 14, 2018, and the two men were later charged in a district court.

Ang’s bail was set at $10,000 on Friday, and he was ordered to surrender himself at the State Courts on June 5 to begin serving his sentence.