SINGAPORE - A sales assistant at a sportswear store took bribes from customers to reserve limited edition sneakers, some of which were resold for a profit.

Muhammad Faiz Amy Jasman, 30, was on Thursday (March 17) fined $10,000 after pleading guilty to one count of corruptly obtaining $3,795 in bribes from Bryan Fong, 22, in 2020.

He also admitted to taking $1,500 from Meng Fanxuan, 26, in exchange for reserving shoes for him - a charge that was taken into consideration for his sentencing.

Faiz was also ordered to pay a penalty of $5,295, which was the total amount in bribes he took from Fong and Meng.

Meng has since been fined $20,000 for bribing shoe store employees but it is unclear if Fong has been charged.

The court heard that Faiz was working at the Wisma outlet of AW LAB Singapore at the time of his offences.

He drew a monthly salary of $2,000 and was responsible for assisting customers with the purchase of sneakers.

Unlike other sneaker retailers - such as Foot Locker Singapore - AW LABS did not release limited-edition sneakers when they first launched.

The shoes would arrive at the store only at a much later date, typically on Thursdays, and would be put up for sale that same day.

Employees like Faiz were informed of the arrival of the stock the day before and knew that each customer was allowed to buy at most only five pairs of limited-edition shoes.

Fong first contacted Faiz some time in July or August 2020 on digital marketplace Carousell after he saw the accused's sneaker listing on the platform.

Fong asked Faiz if he knew anyone working at AW LAB, as the listed sneaker was bought from there, to which Faiz said he was an employee of the company.

When Fong offered to give Faiz money for reserving limited-edition sneakers for him, Faiz agreed.

That made it possible for Mr Fong to secure the purchase of the shoes in advance, without having to physically monitor the available stock at the Wisma store.

Court documents show that between September and October 2020, Faiz reserved 49 pairs of sneakers for Fong.

Faiz was also doing the same for Meng at the time, but it is not clear how many shoes he reserved for the customer.

To circumvent the limit of five pairs of sneakers per customer, Faiz sought the help of his wife and two friends to purchase the shoes.

As a result of their corrupt arrangement, Fong made a profit of between $800 and $2,000 in total from reselling the shoes.

The maximum penalty for corruptly obtaining gratification is a fine of up to $100,000 and a jail term of up to five years.