POLICE officeers who bribe other officers are just as harmful as those who take kickbacks from the public, the High Court has made clear.
Judge of Appeal V.K. Rajah made this point to explain why he trebled the jail sentence of a police sergeant convicted of corruption.
Elvilin Tay, 36, found a stack of cash during an unauthorised raid, then passed $50 each to four colleagues to entice them not to report him to their superiors.
The judge increased his six-month sentence to 1 1/2 years in April last year.
In his grounds for judgment released on Monday, he said the fact that the public was not involved did not make it any less serious. "Indeed, if anything, it is even more disturbing," he wrote.
The judge stressed that both situations "have the effect of publicly undermining the integrity of the police force".
Tay found the cash during a raid in 2009 on illegal immigrants in Seletar.
After passing them money, he told his four colleagues not to tell anyone. A fifth officer rejected his offer. A carton of cigarettes seized during the raid was given to another officer as a birthday present.
Tay was found guilty last year and sentenced to six months in jail by a district judge. At the time, prosecutors Tan Kiat Pheng and Christine Liu argued that the sentence was too light.
But the lower court found that the officers' conduct was not as serious as that of police officers who are convicted of helping massage-parlour owners, illegal moneylenders and importers of undeclared goods escape prosecution.
Justice Rajah disagreed. He said in his grounds for judgment that Tay's motive in bribing the other officers was to keep them quiet and ensure his own crime, of keeping the items found in the raid, would not be discovered.
"More importantly, the serious adverse impact of (his) conduct in drawing his fellow police officers into this 'web of corruption' cannot be underestimated."
The judge cited the similar stand taken in such cases in other places such as Britain, Australia and Hong Kong. "They usually come down hard on corruption in law-enforcement agencies such as the police force," he wrote.
"These sentences reflect society's particular condemnation for such offences, which, if left unchecked, could corrode the integrity and high standing of the police force."
The police said yesterday they had taken appropriate action against four of Tay's colleagues. Action is being taken against a fifth by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau.
(Taken from The Straits Times, Friday, June 10 2011, Page C14)