SINGAPORE: A 34-year-old man was jailed for 15 months on Thursday (Nov 28) for making false bomb threats involving the headquarters of DBS in May.
Ang Cheng Shin, also named as Hong Zhenxun in court documents, pleaded guilty to an amalgamated charge of communicating false information about a harmful thing.
Another amalgamated charge of using vulgarities against the bank’s customer service operators was considered for sentencing.
The court heard that Ang, who was working as a delivery rider, had credit card debt with DBS that amounted to about S$11,500 (US$8,550) at the end of 2023.
This was after interest accumulated on a debt of about S$650 that he incurred on his card in 2011. Payments that Ang made towards this debt were insufficient.
In December 2023, Ang agreed to a repayment plan with DBS, but failed to make any repayments between January and May this year.
DBS activated an automatic dial-up system that would call him once or twice every few days and redirect the call to a customer service operator if he picked up.
On May 27, over a span of about 10 minutes from 1.44pm, Ang answered nine calls made by DBS through the automated system.
On each occasion, the call was transferred to a different customer service operator at DBS Asia Hub.
Ang told each operator that he would plant a bomb at the bank’s headquarters at Marina Bay Financial Centre despite knowing that this was false, Deputy Public Prosecutor Hidayat Amin said.
This alarmed the operators, and some of them alerted DBS’ senior management. A bank employee reported the bomb threats to the police at around 2.10pm.
After this, a total of 67 people, including 19 police officers, were dispatched to deal with what turned out to be a bomb hoax.
The police traced the phone number used to communicate with the customer service operators and tracked Ang’s location to the Paya Lebar and Ubi area, where he was making deliveries.
Nine police officers were dispatched there, and two officers were dispatched to Ang’s home.
Four police officers went to Marina Bay Financial Centre to conduct a bomb sweep. This included examining flower pots and rubbish bins.
DBS alerted its headquarters, and 12 bank employees and 20 security officers joined the police officers in the bomb sweep.
At DBS Asia Hub at Changi Business Park, 10 bank employees and six security officers also conducted a bomb sweep.
When Ang’s location was later detected at SingPost Centre, another four police officers went there to arrest him at about 5.20pm.
Mr Hidayat, who said prosecutions of this offence were rare, asked for 15 to 18 months’ imprisonment for Ang.
He said deterrence was the main sentencing consideration as bomb hoaxes are particularly harmful “in an age where the spectre of terrorism is both ubiquitous and real”.
It is impossible to immediately determine the veracity of the threats, he said, and officers must balance the need to verify them with the importance of not creating undue panic.
“Catastrophic consequences may follow from the slightest miscalculation,” the prosecutor said.
Bomb hoaxes are also a considerable drain on essential services and could take them away from actual emergencies, he added.
Ang, who did not have a lawyer after his application to the Public Defender’s Office was unsuccessful, asked for a sentence of three to four months, saying that he had to support his elderly father.
For an amalgamated charge of communicating false information about a harmful thing, Ang could have been jailed for up to 14 years, fined up to S$100,000, or both.