34 Months' Jail for Ex-Cop in Second Graft Case Against Him

He was earlier given 6½ years in prison in a separate case; jail terms to run consecutively

- Shaffiq Alkhatib

A former police officer was sentenced to two years and 10 months' jail on June 16 after he received $36,000 in bribes.

Poo Tze Chiang, 47, was also ordered to pay a penalty of $36,000—the amount of bribes involved—and will have to spend an additional 15 weeks behind bars if he fails to fork out this amount.

In 2024, he had been sentenced to 6½ years' jail after receiving $32,500 in bribes in unrelated offences. For this earlier case, he was also ordered to pay a penalty of $32,500, or spend an additional 13 weeks and seven days behind bars in default.

On June 16, the court heard that he will start serving his latest sentence after completing his earlier one.

Defence lawyer K. Jayakumar Naidu told The Straits Times that his client is no longer a police officer.

Poo, who was a station inspector with the Singapore Police Force's Secret Societies Branch during both graft cases, was suspended in December 2020.

In the current case, the Singaporean had received the $36,000 over seven months from Chinese national Chen Guangyun, 39, in exchange for promising to help the latter avoid prosecution over immigration-related offences.

Poo failed to deliver on these promises, and Chen was convicted in 2020 of an immigration offence.