4-7-2023 (SINGAPORE) Sergeant Bryan Tay Wei Chuan, aged 30, has been sentenced to three weeks in jail for unlawfully accessing the confidential database of the Singapore Police Force (SPF) in response to a friend’s request to check for any police cases against an individual.
Tay, originally scheduled for trial, pleaded guilty on Monday to charges of wrongful communication of information under the Official Secrets Act and unauthorized computer access. A third charge was taken into consideration during sentencing.
Court documents revealed that Tay, a ground response officer at Sembawang Neighbourhood Police Centre, was contacted on March 18, 2020, by his acquaintance Lincoln Poh Chong Tee, whom he had met during a vacation in Vietnam. Poh asked Tay to perform a screening to determine if there were any ongoing police cases against a person named Wang Yu Chi, providing Wang’s NRIC number.
During a meeting at a food center later that day, Poh introduced Wang to Tay. Wang explained that a police report had been filed against his company, and he wanted to verify if he was implicated. Both Poh and Wang reiterated their request to Tay to screen Wang’s NRIC, with Poh reminding him again a few days later.
On the morning of March 24, 2020, while on counter duty at Sembawang Neighbourhood Police Centre and noticing that no one else was present, Tay accessed Cubicon II, the confidential computer database system of the SPF. He conducted a screening on Wang’s NRIC, which revealed no records. Tay immediately sent a text to Poh stating, “his record is clean.”
During the trial, the prosecution sought a fine of S$5,000 for the unauthorized computer access charge and a jail term of two to four weeks for the Official Secrets Act charge. Deputy Public Prosecutor Ryan Lim highlighted that Tay had breached the trust placed in him as a police officer, thereby undermining the reputation of the Singapore Police Force.
Poh, who had previously been sentenced to a year in jail for multiple offenses, had orchestrated a scheme with Wang to deceive others through a fraudulent money exchange service.
According to the prosecution’s case against Poh, he had requested Tay to conduct another screening in April 2020, but Tay declined, citing the existence of records of such screenings that could lead to his detection. Poh made another attempt in July 2020, asking Tay to check if Wang was wanted by the authorities to determine if he could return to Singapore. Tay refused, expressing his reluctance to carry out any further checks.
During the investigations into Poh’s activities, the unauthorized screening of Wang’s NRIC by Tay was uncovered. Wang, who is currently based in Vietnam, remains at large.
CNA has reached out to the SPF for additional information regarding Tay’s status within the force.
