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SINGAPORE: A woman was fined S$24,000 (US$18,870) on Tuesday (Sep 15) for consenting to a private investigator from her firm conducting surveillance on a police officer.<\/p>\n
The client had engaged the company to gather information on an investigating officer who was handling a case involving his father.<\/p>\n
Tan Hui Ting, a partner at private investigation and security firm CDiC Consultants, pleaded guilty to one charge under the Private Security Industry Act of consenting to her company supplying a private investigator to conduct surveillance on a police officer.<\/p>\n
Another charge was taken into consideration.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old Singaporean woman paid the fine in full.<\/p>\n
The court heard that Hui Ting was a partner at CDiC Consultants along with co-accused Tan Kok Boon.<\/p>\n
In November 2021, a man named Pai Hong Yao approached CDiC to hire a private investigator to look into Deputy Superintendent (DSP) Lee Tien Huat.<\/p>\n
DSP Lee was a police officer at the Police Cantonment Complex, a protected area.<\/p>\n
He had been assigned to investigate a matter involving Mr Pai’s father, and Mr Pai was dissatisfied with the manner in which the investigations were being conducted.<\/p>\n
Mr Pai met Hui Ting and Kok Boon at CDiC on Nov 29, 2021, to discuss the engagement. They learned that the target was a police officer, and that Mr Pai wanted to know if he was a “good or bad policeman”.<\/p>\n
Hui Ting and Kok Boon then consented to CDiC being engaged by Mr Pai to supply the services of a licensed private investigator to surveil and gather information on DSP Lee.<\/p>\n
Hui Ting sent a formal letter of engagement to Mr Pai that same day, which he signed and returned.<\/p>\n
CDiC began investigating DSP Lee around Nov 30, 2021, after receiving his photograph, mobile number and workplace information.<\/p>\n
Mr Pai subsequently sent more messages identifying people whom DSP Lee may have interacted with in the investigations against Mr Pai’s father, including the name and photo of the lead prosecutor.<\/p>\n
From Dec 16, 2021 to Jan 9, 2022, CDiC deployed private investigators to surveil DSP Lee at his residence and his workplace.<\/p>\n
The investigators tracked his whereabouts during the day and photographed him, including two pictures of him standing topless in his kitchen.<\/p>\n
Some surveillance operations lasted more than 12 hours, with one instance beginning at 7.35am and ending at midnight.<\/p>\n
The private investigators also called the Police Cantonment Complex to determine if DSP Lee was inside the building.<\/p>\n
During the engagement, Hui Ting provided Mr Pai with regular updates, including photographs of DSP Lee, his vehicles and his home.<\/p>\n
In total, CDiC received S$25,100 from Mr Pai for the job.<\/p>\n
The company did not obtain the written approval of a licensing officer to conduct surveillance on a police officer.<\/p>\n
At about 4.15pm on Jan 9, 2022, DSP Lee noticed that he was being followed by a group of people.<\/p>\n
He filed a police report the following day.<\/p>\n
Deputy Public Prosecutors Hairul Hakkim and Bharat Punjabi sought a S$25,000 fine for Hui Ting, which is what Kok Boon received.<\/p>\n
They cited the security of government premises and broader interests of national security and public order.<\/p>\n
The prosecutors said the Police Cantonment Complex was not merely a building but the operational heart of the Singapore Police Force and other law enforcement departments, and was a protected area for good reason.<\/p>\n
Defence lawyer Aristotle Eng said a fine of not more than S$18,000 was appropriate, saying that Kok Boon was the managing director of the firm and had exercised a supervisory role over the operation.<\/p>\n
Hui Ting’s role was mainly client-facing and involved coordinating a group chat to relay updates on the assignment, said Mr Eng.<\/p>\n
He said the difference in their decision-making and involvement supports the lower fine sought.<\/p>\n
The defence also said the surveillance did not capture DSP Lee engaging in any confidential or secretive operations, and that all the surveillance took place outside the Police Cantonment Complex.<\/p>\n
For consenting to her company allowing its private investigator to conduct surveillance on a police officer, Hui Ting could have been jailed for up to two years, fined up to S$50,000 or both.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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SINGAPORE: A woman was fined S$24,000 (US$18,870) on Tuesday (Sep 15) for consenting to a private investigator from her firm conducting surveillance on a police…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--etITZaEb--\/c_crop,h_1125,w_2000,x_0,y_1\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/fl_relative,g_south_east,l_mediacorp:cna:watermark:2021-08:cna,w_0.1\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/09\/15\/jia_3962.jpg?itok=cDPzo-dz","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16878,1148,30036,1348,1273,4779,30037,234],"class_list":["post-85096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-companys","tag-fined","tag-investigators","tag-officer","tag-police","tag-private","tag-surveilled","tag-woman","wpcat-2-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}