Ex-CID officer fined for not reporting overseas trip with pimp
13 July 2012 5:23 PM
A CID officer risked losing his retirement bonus after he was charged for not reporting an overseas trip with a known pimp in his police pocket book according to a report by Lianhe Wanbao.
Now retired from the police force, 51-year-old Choy Ah Kiong pleaded guilty on 11 July to flouting the Police General Order (PGO) that required him to list such interactions in his police pocket book.
Mr Choy faced a fine of up to $1,000 or a jail sentence of up to six months or both for the charge against him. If sentenced to jail he would have lost his retirement bonus but after pleading for leniency through his lawyer, Subhas Anandan, the judge fined him $800 instead.
Mr Choy joined the police in 1979 and was a Senior Station Inspector with the Criminal Investigation Department at the time of the incident. The prosecution stated that from 11 to 14 January 2008, Mr Choy travelled with Tan Yew Xiong and his female friend to Shenzhen, China. Despite Mr Tan having a reputation for operating a brothel, Mr Choy had only wrote that he was travelling overseas during this period in his police logbook.
On another occasion, from 27 February to 4 March 2009, Mr Choy travelled to China with Mr Tan and two male friends. For the trip, Mr Choy simply wrote that he was ‘on leave in China till 05-03-09.'
The prosecution’s stand is that since Mr Tan was a known pimp, Mr Choy should have detailed who he travelled with in the logbook as required by the PGO. The prosecution also said that while Mr Choy recorded the trips and did not provide false records, he did not provide sufficient information.
Mr Choy knew Mr Tan when the latter was still working as a driver for prostitutes. In his statement, Mr Choy said he travelled with Mr Tan in order to obtain information. He was scheduled to retire in May 2011, but his retirement pension was frozen due to the case.
