Ex-Certis CISCO officer gets 5 months jail for rashly firing gun
Photo: Reuters
SINGAPORE — A former Certis Cisco corporal who fired his revolver while playing a Russian roulette-style game and then tried to cover up his actions by claiming that he lost two bullets in the toilet was on Thursday (Feb 9) sentenced to five months’ jail for his rash act.
Following a three-day trial in January, a district judge also found 23-year-old Gregory Lai guilty of two other charges, of lying to the police and obstructing the course of justice.
When he was on duty at an observation post at Tuas Checkpoint on Aug 13, 2015, Lai removed five bullets from his gun and reloaded one bullet.
He squeezed the trigger twice, discharging one round.
To cover up his actions, Lai dumped a different bullet into the toilet bowl and informed the operations room that he had lost two bullets in the toilet.
However, only one was recovered after a search was conducted.
Lai had actually recovered the spent round from under a table in the room.
Fellow corporal Muhammad Dzul Adhar Azmi, who was in the room with Lai when the gun was fired, helped Lai to dump the discharged bullet in Bedok Reservoir.
He was jailed for three weeks and fined S$2,000 last October for intentionally obstructing justice and failing to report the offence.
On Thursday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Jane Lim called for a six-month imprisonment sentence, saying that Lai had “recklessly” committed the offence and concocted a plan to cover up his actions.
In this case, “deterrence outweighs rehabilitation”, she added, as she tried to argue against the probationary or community-based sentence the defence was seeking.
District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim said she was “not persuaded” by the defence’s request.
In convicting Lai, the judge previously said Lai knew full well that firing a loaded gun with another person in close proximity was a “highly risky act that could endanger a human life”.
She had noted that the two officers were in a “very small, confined room” — one that measured 2.7m by 1.7m — and the bullet could have ricocheted anywhere within the room.
The fact that the revolver was pointed downwards, and not at Dzul, when Lai pulled the trigger also did not mean that the act was not rash, she had added.
“It was purely fortuitous that nothing happened to Dzul,” District Judge Hamidah had said then.
For the rash act of endangering human life, Lai could have been jailed up to six months and/or fined S$2,500.
He could also have been jailed up to a year and/or fined S$5,000 for lying to the police, while the offence of obstructing the course of justice carried the maximum penalty of up to seven years’ jail.
