Corrupt individuals who fail to pay penalties face longer jail terms

Apex court ruling intended to prevent them from opting for jail time to keep illicit gains

- Selina Lum

Corrupt individuals who fail to pay penalties imposed by the court for bribes received now risk serving longer jail terms that are intended to prevent them from opting for jail time to retain their illicit gains.

The Court of Appeal on Dec 4 ruled that, instead of imposing one global penalty for multiple charges, sentencing judges must impose one penalty for each charge on which the accused person is convicted.

Under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), a person convicted of accepting bribes must also be ordered to pay a penalty equivalent to the amount of bribes received.

This is in addition to being sentenced to jail or a fine.

The in-default jail term for each penalty order is capped at 30 months. With the change, a convicted bribe recipient could end up serving a longer jail term than if a global penalty was imposed.

The ruling came in the case of Clarence Chang Peng Hong – a former manager at BP Singapore – who is serving a prison sentence for accepting $5.88 million in bribes from businessman Koh Seng Lee between 2006 and 2010.

Chang was initially handed one penalty order to pay $6.2 million, with an in-default imprisonment term of 28 months.