Two men charged with attempting to get sexual favours
By Shaffiq Alkhatib, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 17 November 2009 1411 hrs

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SINGAPORE: Two men have been charged, separately, with attempting to obtain sexual favours in return for turning a blind eye on smoking offenders.

One of them is 32-year-old Mohamed Rafi Abdul Alim who was employed by Certis-CISCO Security and attached to the National Environment Agency (NEA) as an enforcement officer.

Along with three other officers, he approached a girl whom he saw smoking with her friends at the basement carpark of Queensway Shopping Centre in March this year.

The girl and her friends were in school uniforms. The officers then took down the students' particulars and gave them a verbal warning.

However, shortly after this, Mohamed Rafi allegedly sent the girl a text message asking for sexual services. It is believed that he promised not to refer her to the relevant authorities should she give in to his request.

42-year-old Koh Hui Chong, a former NEA officer, faced a similar charge. He noticed a boy in his school uniform smoking at a playground in late April last year.

Koh approached the student and informed him that he will be booked for under-aged smoking. He also asked the boy for his parents' contact details so that he could speak to them about the matter.

However, the student gave him false information about his father. In response to this, it is believed that Koh approached the boy's school to obtain the details even though he was not authorised to do so.

Koh then allegedly contacted the boy's mother in early May last year, asking for sexual services in return for not taking action against her son.

If convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act, both men could each be jailed up to five years and fined a maximum of S$100,000.


- CNA/so