SINGAPORE — A 38-year-old man was sentenced by a district court on Monday to eight weeks’ jail after he attempted to bribe three traffic police officers with"coffee money" to let him off after he was caught drink-driving.
Han had claimed during the trial that the money he offered was meant as payment for a fine, but it was later proved by the prosecution, led by Deputy Public Prosecutor Samuel Yap, that he knew that he was offering a bribe.According to court documents, the incident between Han and the officers happened on Dec 3 in 2019, at an open-air carpark at Geylang Lorong 31 between 11.30pm and 11.45pm.
When they noticed that Han smelled of alcohol, Sgt Shakir returned to his patrol car to retrieve a breathalyser, while SSgt Roslan tried to engage the man. During that conversation, Sgt Lum understood from Han that the S$100 was an offer to the two officers to “let him off and give him a chance”, and that “if S$100 is not enough increase it to S$150”.
Han added that S$100 — which he described as “kafei qian”, or coffee money in Mandarin — was not a bribe “because in China, the amount had to be in thousands of dollars before being considered a bribe”, said the court documents.Han was eventually arrested. During the course of investigation, it was revealed that Han was “in a hurry to return home to China” the following day.