SINGAPORE: During the past week, several club employees have been hauled to court meant for tipping off connections in other clubs about ongoing police raids.
A golf club bouncer got seventeen weeks’ jail plus a fine for sending more than 60 messages notifying members of 2 chat groups about such raids.
He did this particular knowing that members of the groups would likely take the appropriate steps to prevent the detection of offences in the vicinity of the raids, court documents stated.
In similar cases a week ago, a customer service officer at a club had been jailed for two days and fined, whilst seven other membership employees were fined for sending tip-offs to chat organizations.
After the convictions, several people raised questions on social media, asking what made these types of actions illegal.
Lawyers whom CNA spoke to directed to Section 204A of the Penal Code, which penalises acts that obstruct, prevent, pervert or beat the course of justice.
This provision was amended in the beginning of 2020.
Previously, the offender needed to have the intention to obstruct justice, said Mr Chooi Jing Yen, partner at Eugene Thuraisingam LLP.
The amendment lowered the requirements for the offence to committing a good act that “has a tendency” in order to obstruct justice, whilst knowing that it is likely the act will obstruct justice.
Mister Mark Yeo, senior associate at Kalco Law LLC, stated it was also probably that the enforcement activity had to be ongoing during the time the messages had been sent to the organizations for there to be an offence.
He pointed to some judgment issued last year by a High Courtroom judge, which mentioned: “If an accused person is aware or even has reason to believe that some wrongdoing has been or may have been committed… and consequently requires steps to somehow circumvent or prevent the analysis into or the criminal prosecution of the wrongdoing, he is guilty of an offence under Section 204A.
“He doesn’t need to know what particular offence may have been committed. He only needs to be aware of facts that could amount to wrongdoing. ”
Mr Yeo said this was especially so in the club bouncer’s case because the man’s messages included information like the locations of the raids plus police vehicle licence plate numbers.
Both lawyers furthermore said it is not necessary for an offender to have come across the information illegally in order for the tip-off to be an offence.
Those who tipped off the chat organizations generally knew regarding the raids when they were conducted at their particular workplaces, or whenever they spotted police automobiles nearby, court documents mentioned.
Mr Chooi said it is well-established that the offence of obstruction of justice does not depend on how the offender came across the info in the tip-off.
Additionally , if understanding of the raids had been obtained through insider knowledge, it could be an offence under the Recognized Secrets Act, Mr Yeo said.
TRAFFIC WARDENS
Reacting to the golf club bouncer’s case, others brought up the example of fellow drivers warning each other to move unlawfully parked cars each time a traffic warden will be spotted.
When asked whether this really is also an obstruction of justice, the particular lawyers said it really is potentially an offence, but there could be good reasons not to prosecute.
Illegal parking is really a fairly trivial and common regulatory offence, said Mr Chooi, and authorities might be more concerned with reducing incidents of it than prosecuting the offenders.
“Seen this way, drivers who notify others about traffic wardens in the area (and thereby encourage them to move their cars away) may actually be marketing the goal of reducing situations of illegal car parking, ” he mentioned.
Mr Chooi said that Singapore seemed to subscribe to this notion especially for road visitors offences.
“We would rather prevent the offence than prosecute it. For example , we have road signs on our expressways alerting drivers that a speed camera increased ahead, and road signs at particular junctions alerting drivers that there is a red-colored light camera on that junction.
“The philosophy is just not so much to catch and prosecute offenders, but to prevent generally there being so many offenders in the first place. ”
Mr Yeo stated it was likely how the potential wrongdoing within the clubs was a lot more serious than visitors violations.
He or she added that it made an appearance the nightclub workers were working as a group, be it natural or processed, and their functions were premeditated and planned solely to evade enforcement actions.
Syndicated or group offences are usually treated more seriously than offences dedicated spontaneously by people, he said.