Estate agent in Singapore fined $5,000 for abetting Narcotics officer to commit computer misuse

Alistair Pow Jun Hao was sentenced on March 24, 2014 to 24 months' probation by a district court and ordered to perform 150 hours of community service, after pleading guilty to two counts of sexually penetrating the minor and another young girl.
Alistair Pow Jun Hao was sentenced on March 24, 2014 to 24 months' probation by a district court and ordered to perform 150 hours of community service, after pleading guilty to two counts of sexually penetrating the minor and another young girl. -- ST GRAPHICS

SINGAPORE - An estate agent was fined a maximum of $5,000 on Monday for abetting a Central Narcotics Bureau officer to misuse the bureau's computer system to get information on a Singaporean whose wife was seeking a divorce.

Lim Wui Kiat, 36, admitted to instigating staff sergeant Ho Kian Chong, 40, to unlawfully access the data contained in the bureau's Integrated Drug Enforcement Administrative System (IDEAS), which displayed the details of one Hee Hoi Weng in May 2010.

A district court heard that in October 2009, Lim introduced a Vietnamese woman, Ms Doan Thi Kieu Giang, to his friend, Ho.

Ms Giang, who was married to Mr Hee, wanted a divorce but did not know where her husband was living and asked Lim for help to get her husband's address in order to send him a lawyer's letter for the divorce.

Lim then asked Ho for help, sending a text of Mr Hee's identity card number to Ho, who was then a senior investigating officer at the time.

One or two days later, Ho provided Mr Hee's address to Lim. Investigation showed that Ho had screened Mr Hee's NRIC number using IDEAS, which allowed him to access Mr Hee's biodata, Police Gazette records and CNB drug records. Mr Hee was not an accused person or the subject of any investigation at the time.

Mr Hee later confirmed that his wife's lawyer sent a dispatch to his home asking him to sign the divorce papers in June 2010.

Lim admitted that he had asked Ho for help to get Mr Hee's address and knew it was wrong for Ho to do so as this was not for official work purpose.

Ho was jailed for two weeks last October.

The maximum penalty for computer misuse is a $5,000 fine and two years' jail.

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