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CNA
4 hours ago
- CNA
Team lead of ICA's Visit Pass Unit sought sexual acts from men to help them with applications
SINGAPORE: An Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer who oversaw a team in the agency's Visit Pass Unit, which grants passes to foreigners, obtained sexual favours from six men in exchange for helping them get passes. Kannan Morice Rajagopal Jayaram, 55, pleaded guilty on Monday (Jul 28) to three charges of corruptly obtaining gratification in the form of sexual acts in exchange for helping the bribers with short-term visit pass applications. Another three similar charges involving three other men will be considered in sentencing, which was adjourned to August. Kannan, who has been suspended from duty, was an inspector with ICA at the time of the offences between 2022 and 2023. The court heard that he first joined ICA in 1996 and was promoted in November 2018 to become a team leader of the Visit Pass Unit. He was promoted to the rank of inspector in June 2021. As a team leader in the unit, he was responsible for overseeing a team of 10 to 11 ICA officers, who reported to him. The officers were tasked with processing any applications submitted by foreigners seeking to extend their stays in Singapore, such as applications to extend their short-term visit passes. The unit also handled cases involving overstayers in the country and cases involving the loss of travel documents. There were prevailing guidelines governing short-term visit pass extensions, but Kannan's subordinates had the discretion to grant or reject such extensions if there was enough justification to do so. They would usually consult Kannan, as he was their team leader, whenever they encountered difficulties with such extension applications. Kannan had the discretion to approve any short-term visit pass extension applications that were handled by his team. Occasionally, Kannan would man the walk-in counter at ICA's headquarters and personally attend to any such applicants wanting to renew their short-term visit passes. Kannan knew that it was not right for him to contact foreign short-term visit pass applicants and initiate sexual meet-ups with them, but he did so anyway. Court documents described how he had such encounters with three men. One of them, an Indian national then aged 26, was in Singapore to study hospitality management. He had received only in-principle approval for his student pass application at the point of entry into Singapore in March 2022, so he was given a short-term visit pass so he could continue to stay legally in Singapore while he waited to get his student pass. He had to repeatedly apply for extensions of his short-term visit pass at ICA's headquarters. He first got to know Kannan in October 2022 when he went to the headquarters for such an application. When he went back again in November 2022, Kannan attended to him personally, and they exchanged contact details. After the foreigner completed his application, Kannan contacted him on WhatsApp, asking to meet up. The foreigner initially declined as he was in school, but later called Kannan for help when his application was rejected. Kannan instructed the foreigner to bring his immigration documents and meet him at the void deck of a block of housing flats near Kallang MRT station on Dec 24, 2022. They went to a nearby supermarket where Kannan bought beer and took the foreigner back to his home, where they drank it. At Kannan's home, he instructed the foreigner to submit a short-term visit pass extension application on the ICA website. Kannah then called his subordinate who was at ICA's headquarters and instructed her to approve the application, granting a short-term visit pass for two weeks. He said he had granted the foreigner the "wrong number of days" for an earlier extension application. The officer followed Kannan's instructions, even though the foreigner's previous application had already been rejected. When the foreigner realised his application had been approved, he thanked Kannan and continued drinking beer with him. After this, Kannan asked for a kiss. The foreigner declined as he was not sexually attracted to Kannan. Kannan persisted, and the foreigner eventually acceded as he was "grateful to the accused for his help in granting" the application, said Deputy Public Prosecutors Bryan Wong and Benjamin Low. He was also afraid that Kannan would cancel the pass if he was rejected. They went to Kannan's bedroom, where Kannan performed sex acts on the foreigner. The foreigner later admitted that he would not have allowed Kannan to carry out those acts if he had not been an ICA officer with the capability to extend the pass. Kannan admitted that he knew the foreigner was not likely to reject his advances due to his status as an ICA officer. ICA previously said in a statement that it had received information on Kannan's acts and immediately reported him to the relevant authorities for further investigation. Kannan's case was adjourned to August for mitigation and sentencing.
Independent Singapore
5 hours ago
- Independent Singapore
Drink stall chain allegedly makes staff pay for incorrect orders, says part-time worker
Photo: Freepik/zinkevych (for illustration purposes only) SINGAPORE: A part-time worker has publicly criticised a 'drink stall chain' in Singapore for making her and other employees pay for any incorrectly made beverages. In a post on the r/SGexams subreddit, the worker wrote that she found the policy both 'unnecessary' and 'unreasonable,' especially since they are only paid S$9 per hour. 'It is already barely enough to make ends meet,' she said. 'It's hard to justify this kind of policy. I mean, yeah, a drink is just four dollars and everybody just needs to fork out a dollar to pay for it, which isn't that much, but I don't understand why employees should be held financially responsible when the drink can simply be remade or the order voided, with the reason written on the receipt.' She went on to ask fellow Redditors whether it was truly fair for management to impose such penalties on workers already earning minimum wage, just because of what she called 'a puny mistake.' While she didn't reveal the company's name, she hinted that 'it's not a small business' and that it has 'multiple branches' across the city-state. 'This practice is likely illegal & unethical.' Under her post, several Redditors urged the worker to report the company's policy to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). One wrote, 'Illegal deductions are only permissible after the employer conducts a proper investigation to determine who is at fault. Keep track and ask the owner to pay back when quitting, or report to MOM.' Another said, 'Document it in writing and file report to MOM. Plus the cost of the drink definitely isn't worth 4 dollars.' A third wrote, 'This practice is likely illegal & unethical. Report to MOM.' A fourth shared, 'Nope. Usually, they will give it to the staff as a free drink/toss it away/if the next order is coincidentally the same drink. I have never heard of this. Not common when I work in F&B or juice bars.' Employers must hold an inquiry before deducting wages According to the Ministry of Manpower, employers are permitted to deduct an employee's salary 'for damage or loss of money or goods,' but only under specific conditions. They must first carry out a proper inquiry to determine whether the employee is directly responsible. The employee must also be given an opportunity to explain the circumstances before any deductions are made. If the employer decides to proceed, the deduction must not exceed 25% of the employee's monthly salary and must be made as a one-time lump sum. Read also: Woman says her brother keeps falling into debt chasing 'fast money,' and their mum always bails him out () => { const trigger = if ('IntersectionObserver' in window && trigger) { const observer = new IntersectionObserver((entries, observer) => { => { if ( { lazyLoader(); // You should define lazyLoader() elsewhere or inline here // Run once } }); }, { rootMargin: '800px', threshold: 0.1 }); } else { // Fallback setTimeout(lazyLoader, 3000); } });
CNA
8 hours ago
- CNA
Former bank employee, insurance agent and private-hire driver jailed for cheating 13 out of S$1.2 million
SINGAPORE: A man who worked as a bank employee, insurance agent and later private-hire driver cheated 13 victims out of S$1.2 million (US$935,000) in investment scams over four years. Benjamin Chua Sian Yang, a 37-year-old Singaporean, was sentenced on Monday (Jul 28) to jail for six years and three months. Chua pleaded guilty to three charges of cheating, with another five charges taken into consideration. The court heard that Chua was an insurance agent with Aviva in 2018. Before this, he was a relationship manager at UOB and a personal banker at Citibank, but the dates for these jobs were not provided in court papers. Since at least 2017, Chua started working as a private-hire driver for additional income. He got to know some of his victims through his work at UOB or Aviva, when they were his clients. He also snagged some victims when he ferried them in his private-hire vehicle and talked to them about investment and finance. He gave an impression that he was a successful forex trader so that they would be interested in investing with him. Around July 2021, he was fired from his job at Aviva. He opened a demo account with IG Brokers Singapore without a Capital Market Service Licence and used the demo account returns to convince victims to invest with him. He would send screenshots of alleged projected returns, promising high returns which he knew could not be generated and offering attractive interest rates he knew were impossible to achieve. To keep up the charade, Chua sometimes gave the victims sums of money that he generated through other means. He also gave gifts to the victims such as iPhones, to entice them to continue investing with him. The first police report was made against Chua in April 2021. He was investigated but continued to scam others until August 2023, using the money for things like gambling, buying collectables and personal expenses. Between February 2019 and August 2023, he cheated S$1,233,290 from 13 victims. These include a 67-year-old primary school teacher, a 66-year-old physician and a 55-year-old hawker. One of the largest sums he cheated was from a 47-year-old freelance stylist, who gave him S$260,000 in total. She had met him when he ferried her in his vehicle in May 2017, introducing himself as an Aviva financial advisor. Between 2017 and 2018, she spoke to him over text and in person about financial matters and stocks and later made investments through him. He later lied to her that he had started his own trading platform in stocks and shares and got her to invest with him multiple times. One of these included a purported investment in stock in the aviation sector with a minimum S$60,000 principal, to earn S$700 repayment every two weeks, with a free iPhone. The woman transferred the sum to Chua and received the free iPhone, but did not get any of the promised interest or the principal returned. Chua was arrested on Aug 22, 2023 and later remanded from Feb 12 this year. The prosecution sought 76 to 84 months' jail for Chua, noting the sum involved, the number of victims and the length of offending. Chua abused the trust of many victims who had been long-time clients of his while he was still working at reputable establishments, said the prosecutor.
