4 charged with taking bribes
By Shaffiq Alkhatib | Posted: 16 August 2011 1810 hrs
SINGAPORE: Four former Fullerton Hotel employees were charged on Tuesday in court with accepting bribes totalling more than S$20,000 from a taxi driver.
Two of them later pleaded guilty and one of them was fined S$18,000 for accepting a S$1,000 bribe.
Forty-six-year-old bell captain Azahar Ariffin and 47-year-old bellman Goh Yeow Kwang admitted to accepting the money from Yip Kiam Bin in exchange for assigning guests' taxi bookings to the cabby.
They did this instead of using the hotline when guests asked for taxi limousine services.
Azahar, who had held his post since 2000, was fined S$10,000 for accepting S$3,800 in bribes between 2006 and 2008.
He also had to pay a penalty, equivalent to the amount he had accepted in bribes.
Should he fail to fork out the money, he would have to spend 14 weeks behind bars.
Goh took S$1,000 in bribes from May 2007 until mid-2008.
He was fined on Tuesday S$18,000 and ordered to pay a penalty of S$1,000 as he had already been convicted of a similar offence in 2003.
Then, Goh had to pay a fine and a penalty totalling nearly S$13,000 after being convicted of five graft charges.
The two other men charged were the hotel's then-head concierge, 49-year-old Muhammad Salman Abdullah Tan (alias Gregory Tan), and another bell captain, 45-year-old Narayanasamy P Annamalai.
Tan faces three charges involving S$2,200.
Narayanasamy, who is accused of 11 graft charges, is believed to have accepted more than S$13,000 in bribes.
Their pre-trial conferences will be held in November.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Kok Shu-En told the court that Yip, the cabby, was fined S$28,000, last year.
-CNA/wk
