Indian-origin airport officer jailed for 3 years in Singapore | World News

An Indian-origin former Changi Airport Group (CAG) assist officer was sentenced to 3 years and two months in jail on Friday for accepting bribes to subject Airside Driving Permits (ADPs) to unqualified staff.

Premkumar Jaya Kumar, 42, took SGD 4,400 from folks, together with an organization director, reported The Straits Occasions.

An ADP permits the allow holder to drive chosen autos on any a part of an airside aside from taxiways and runways. An airside is a part of an airport terminal past passport and customs management, together with locations resembling hangars and cargo loading areas.

Premkumar, who labored with CAG from October 6, 2015, to December 25, 2017, had issued the permits despite the fact that he knew that firm director Diong Yao’s staff didn't move the requisite concept and sensible exams.

On the time of the offences, Diong, 41, was a director at Singapura Logistics Assist, whereas one other man, Noordin Abdul Gaffor, 48, was then a supervisor on the agency. Their circumstances are nonetheless pending.

Premkumar additionally modified information in a CAG pc platform known as the Apron Allow Issuance and Enforcement System (Apies) to falsify the employees’ profiles and present that they'd purportedly handed their concept and sensible exams.

He pleaded responsible to offences underneath the Pc Misuse and Cybersecurity Act and a number of counts of graft.

Moreover the jail time period, he was additionally ordered to pay a penalty of SGD 7,500. Premkumar will spend an extra 15 days behind bars if he's unable to fork out this quantity.

The prosecution mentioned, “By committing these offences, the accused unleashed no less than 42 untrained and unlicensed drivers on Changi Airport’s airside. The inherent hazard these untrained drivers posed to human security and property on the airside is exponential.”

Premkumar’s offences got here to gentle when a 19-year-old Malaysian youth, who was then driving a baggage tractor in an airside space, collided with a parked SilkAir airplane on December 8, 2017.

Because of this, the plane sustained SGD 795,000 in harm and was declared unfit to fly.

CAG then performed an investigation and came upon that the teenager’s Apies profile was inaccurate and that Premkumar had modified it. Premkumar obtained one other SGD 2,400 in bribes in 2016 and 2017. Improper ADPs have been then issued to no less than 42 drivers between September 2016 and December 2017.

His offences got here to gentle in December 2017, and he surrendered to the police on December 19, 2019.

His bail was set at SGD 25,000 on Friday, and he's anticipated to give up on the State Courts on Might 17 to start serving his sentence, in accordance with The Straits Occasions report.