Disgruntled ex-employee cut fibre optic cables
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SINGAPORE: In what is believed to be the first such case here, a disgruntled former SingTel associate engineer has pleaded guilty to mischief for cutting its fibre optic cables after his employment was terminated.
Terrance Tan Khoon Shan's actions resulted in thousands of households being unable to connect to the Internet, receive television broadcasts and make telephone calls.
The 34-year-old pleaded guilty on Monday to 60 charges of mischief which caused more than $S185,000 worth of damage.
The district court heard that Tan joined SingTel in August 2009 to work in the "Fibre to the Home" project, an initiative aimed at providing ultra-high speed Internet connections to end users. His employment was, however, terminated last September.
Tan then plotted to sabotage his supervisors by damaging equipment known as "Fibre Splicing Boxes".
Deputy Public Prosecutor Sanjiv Vaswani said the boxes are located at HDB blocks and the cables are found in them. The boxes are secured with a locking mechanism and the keys are usually left on top of the boxes for contractors.
Tan found a set of keys in Clementi and discovered that the keys could operate the locking mechanism of similar boxes.
The DPP pressed for a "substantial custodial sentence" of three years. In mitigation, Tan, who was unrepresented, told the court that he had "succumbed to emotions" after he left SingTel. He added he "has nothing against SingTel".
Tan will be back in court on August 23.-- TODAY
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post edited due to advertising..
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Damn, he beat me to it!
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Deputy Public Prosecutor Sanjiv Vaswani said the boxes are located at HDB blocks and the cables are found in them. The boxes are secured with a locking mechanism and the keys are usually left on top of the boxes for contractors.
so now every tom dick and harry knows where the keys are kept