Jail for man who took photos and videos of ICA officer at Woodlands Checkpoint and lied to police
Wong Jeo Wah grumbled that he had already wound down the car window and took photos of videos of the officer.
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SINGAPORE: A man took photos of an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer at Woodlands Checkpoint and lied that he did not own an account responsible for uploading them to Facebook.
Wong Jeo Wah, a 38-year-old Singaporean, was sentenced on Thursday (Jan 29) to four weeks and three days' jail, along with a fine of S$2,000 (US$1,585).
He pleaded guilty to three charges, which include using insulting words towards an ICA officer, giving false information to the police and an unrelated charge of voluntarily causing hurt.
Another four charges were taken into consideration.
THE CASE
The court heard that Wong drove to Woodlands Checkpoint with his fiancee on Aug 12, 2024 and stopped his vehicle for immigration checks at a departure lane counter.
The officer at the counter, Mr Ryan Seah, directed Wong to wind down the passenger car window to verify if there were other passengers in the rear.
Wong had already done so but had not removed the window shade that obscured Officer Seah's view of the car interior.
Wong removed the car shade, grumbling aloud about the request and saying that he had already wound down the window, but Officer Seah could not see.
He lamented "wah lao", which Officer Seah heard. He asked Wong to repeat what he had said and Wong replied that he was talking to his fiancee.
Officer Seah called for assistance while Wong remained in the car at the departure lane.
Wong used his mobile phone to take photos and videos of the officer while he was within a protected area.
Other ICA officers arrived and asked Wong to delete the photos and videos. He did so in their presence and was allowed to leave without further action.
However, while Wong was in Malaysia, the photos and videos he had earlier deleted were retrieved and posted onto the Facebook group Complaint Singapore using an account named "Sky SG".
Officer Seah was informed about the post, and he made a police report.
On Aug 16, 2024, Wong was returning to Singapore via Woodlands Checkpoint with his fiancee when his vehicle was stopped and referred to ICA officers.
ICA immigration officer Muhammad Haziq Hazli attended to Wong with his partner.
After conducting searches, Officer Haziq received instructions to arrest Wong and take him to Woodlands Police Division.
He allowed Wong to use his mobile phone to contact his next-of-kin to retrieve the vehicle.
However, Officer Haziq noticed that Wong was using his phone for unrelated matters, noting that Wong had deleted a WhatsApp chat.
Officer Haziq approached Wong and asked if he needed to use his phone for other matters, explaining that he was to use his phone only to contact his next-of-kin.
Wong responded angrily, saying he still needed to use his phone and uttered the word "stupid".
Officer Haziq told Wong that he was recording him with his body-worn camera, but Wong retorted that he was "not scared" and called him "stupid" again.
Later that day, Wong gave a statement to the police after his arrest.
He lied that he did not own the Facebook account named Sky SG, which had made the Facebook post containing Officer Seah's photos.
He claimed that while he had taken the photos and videos in the Facebook post, he had sent them to a friend called Ah Yang, who could have made the post.
The police conducted screenings with Facebook for the account Sky SG and obtained the IP address logs along with the log-in records.
They found that the IP address of the account was registered to Wong's residential address and that the email address used to register the account also belonged to Wong.
When confronted with these findings in September 2024, Wong admitted that he had created the Sky SG account. However, he continued to maintain that he did not make the Facebook post.
Wong's incident at Woodlands Checkpoint was shown in a documentary by CNA Insider titled World's Busiest Land Crossing: Inside Singapore Woodlands Checkpoint, under the subheading 'The rude traveller'.
The prosecutor sought a jail term of between four weeks and three days, and five weeks and five days for Wong, along with a fine of S$2,000.
He has past convictions from 2004, with a relevant one in 2021 for voluntarily causing hurt, for which he was jailed.
Wong's lawyer, Mr Anil Singh Sandhu, said his client was very sorry for the offences he had committed.
He said Wong was taking on odd jobs to support himself and his aged mother and wishes to put this episode behind him.
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