NSF who abused police database to check stranger's criminal history fined $3,000
He was a Traffic Police (TP) national serviceman (NSF) who was asked to help check the criminal history of a stranger.
Royce Phua Tai Da, 24, agreed to the request by a former TP NSF whom he knew as a friend even though TP officers weren’t allowed to access the police database for personal matters.
As he didn’t have authorised access to the database, he approached another NSF for help and lied that he needed an NRIC number screened for work purposes.
On Wednesday (19 December), Phua was fined $3,000 after he admitted to one count of engaging in a conspiracy with three others to gain unauthorised access to data belonging to the Singapore Police Force, a breach under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act. Two other counts of engaging in a conspiracy with another ex-traffic police NSF to do an unauthorised screening on a vehicle on two other occasions were taken into account for his sentencing.
Phua, who was posted to TP’s general investigation team as a staff assistant, committed the offences in July 2016. He knew a senior, Joseph Yeo, had access to the database, which contained various classified information, including the criminal history of individuals.
Sometime in the middle of 2016, a person by the name of Desmond Chu confided in his friend about some problems that he had encountered with a business partner. Chu claimed that he was worried his business partner would implicate him in some crimes.
Chu’s friend approached a close friend, Ivan Sim, whom he knew could find a way to check the database. Chu’s friend sent over Chu’s NRIC number to Sim on 9 July 2016.
Sim had just finished his national service with TP. He asked Phua for help, telling him that Chu had problems entering Singapore.
After getting Chu’s NRIC number, Phua showed it to Yeo and asked for help to screen the information in the database.
“(Phua) told Yeo that the screening was for work-related purposes, which (Phua) knew was not true,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Tay Jingxi.
Yeo believed Phua and after accessing the database, he let Phua take a photo of the screening results.
Phua later sent the photo to Sim, who sent it to Chu’s friend, along with the caption “Actually. Nothing leh. His latest case was 2015.” Chu’s friend told Chu about the results.
The incident only came to light after Chu’s friend was arrested on 30 September that year for an unrelated incident involving illegal gambling. His mobile phones were seized.
When officers screened one of the mobile phones, they discovered the photo of the screening results and investigated further.
The cases against Sim and Chu’s friend are pending.
Phua knew the limits of his authority but chose to breach them, said DPP Tay, adding that such offences were hard to detect.
Phua’s lawyer Selwyn Tan said that his client did not gain from the incident and there was no damage to the computer system. The NSF was offered a bribe but he had rejected it, the lawyer added.
District Judge Kenneth Yap noted that potentially damaging information could have been leaked given that the database contained sensitive information.
For his offence, Phua could have been jailed up to two years and/or fined a maximum $5,000 on a first conviction.
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