An unknown man turned up at his door shortly after he made a police report about a traffic accident he was involved in.
The man then told Mr Haresh Vishindas Chandiramani that his contact details had been given out by someone at Traffic Police for a fee.
Enraged, he chased the man away.
But the incident repeated itself after he was involved in another traffic accident a year later.
Again, an unknown person contacted him and asked him if he wished to seek compensation.
Incensed, Mr Haresh reported the matter to a senior Traffic Police officer.
Investigations revealed that it was a Traffic Police clerk, Khatijah A. Manap, who had leaked his details, along with the details of 22 others, to a law firm, Clifford Law.
Khatijah earned about $200 for each contact who went on to engage the firm, netting at least $2,500 between August 2010 and February 2013.
Yesterday, Khatijah, 61, pleaded guilty to five charges under the Official Secrets Act and three under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Her co-accused, Gulzar Raja Singh Sandhu, a legal executive from Clifford Law, is also facing charges.
Court papers said that Khatijah was involved in a traffic accident in 2008 and was referred by a relative to Raja’s daughter, who was a lawyer and also from Clifford Law.
Raja, who was in charge of meeting and interviewing clients of the law firm, later heard from his daughter that Khatijah was a clerk in the Traffic Police’s investigation branch.
He approached Khatijah at her workplace sometime after June 2010, after she had received her payout from her accident claims.
Raja asked her if she wanted to work with him by selling the contact details of people involved in traffic accidents.
He offered her $200 for each contact who engaged his law firm.
Khatijah thought about it and accepted the offer a few days later.
She would randomly identify traffic accident victims from investigation papers that she handled and jot their particulars down on a separate piece of paper.
CONTACT NUMBERS
Each time, she would gather about four or five names and contact numbers and pass the information to Raja over the phone before disposing of the paper.
Raja would meet her at her void deck or the roadside near his daughter’s Siglap home to hand over the money after the accident victims engaged his firm.
Between August 2010 and February 2013, they targeted 23 people.
One of them was Mr Haresh, who was approached twice – in March 2012 and February 2013.
Khatijah, claiming to be an “Azizah” from Clifford Law, would phone him and tell him he could seek compensation for the accident.
She would also advise him to consult Clifford Law and arrange a meeting with a paralegal, who was actually Raja.
On the second occasion, Mr Haresh called Khatijah’s office line – having earlier got her number when he called Traffic Police to make an inquiry into his new accident case – and demanded to know why she passed his number to an outsider.
Khatijah revealed she was actually Azizah.
Mr Haresh warned her that what she did was wrong and he made a police report.
Investigations were unable to confirm the total amount Khatijah pocketed, but her bank statement showed that Raja had transferred $2,500 into her account, court papers said.
The case was adjourned to July 11 for mitigation and submissions on sentence.
For each charge under the Official Secrets Act, Khatijah can be jailed up to two years and fined up to $2,000.
For each charge of corruptly receiving money, she can be jailed up to five years and fined up to $100,000.
rloh@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on June 08, 2016.
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