A married cop who illegally accessed the police computer system to check on a woman he had been having an affair with was fined $4,000 on Tuesday.
Senior station inspector Rick Goh Fu Yuan, 39, had wanted to lodge a police report against 28-year-old Joice Rosiana as he had suspected her of making nuisance calls to his wife.
He carried out an unauthorised search using the Frontline Officers’ Computerised System (Focus) by keying in her identity card number in the search field on Nov 11, 2011.
The system enables authorised officers to lodge police reports and carry out searches on reports filed by members of the public.
Goh, who was deployed as a court officer, pleaded guilty to one of three charges of computer misuse at Central Police Division headquarters.
Goh’s lawyer Michael Chia said in mitigation that his client had Ms Joice’s details as she had been a very close friend for some time. He wanted to make sure the information he had was accurate before he lodged a report against her.
He said the officer of 18 years is likely to face further disciplinary proceedings and lose his career in the SPF.
Mr Chia added: “He actually had a bright future ahead of him and he would have had the opportunity to serve the nation had this one foolish act not occurred. Of course, he should have known better.”
Goh got to know Ms Joice, an assistant admin executive, when he was studying at the Singapore Institute of Management University in 2010.
Mr Chia said that by June 2011, he had begun to distance himself from her as he felt their relationship was developing into an improper association as he was still married at the time.
He said his client committed the offence “in a moment of absolute folly and desperation to protect his then wife from harassment”.
He did not benefit from the act, nor cause any damage.
Goh could have been fined up to $5,000 and/or jailed for up to two years.
Source: www.straitstimes.com
