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Prison officer accused of corruption hit with computer misuse charges

(PHOTO: Getty Images)
(PHOTO: Getty Images)

A prison officer accused of corruption has been charged for inducing two other officers to access data belonging to the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) without authorisation.

Senior Chief Warder Kobi Krishna Ayavoo, 50, was slapped with two new charges under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act on Thursday (23 November). These are on top of the eight charges that were brought against him in July for attempting to obtain bribes from an inmate.

For the latest offences, Kobi was charged with one count each of instigating Chief Warder Mohamed Sarraj Shadul Hameed, and Staff Sergeant Firoz Khan Shaik Fazaluddin, to access unauthorised data from the Prisons Operations and Rehabilitation System (PORTS) – which belongs to SPS – on 24 July this year. Both Sarraj and Firoz were employed with SPS when they committed the offences.

Kobi has been accused of instigating Chief Warder Sarraj to access data he was not authorised to in PORTS. The nature of the data accessed was not specified in the charge sheet.

Kobi has also been accused of instigating Staff Sergeant Firoz to access PORTS without authorisation to view an inmate’s number.

Firoz was also charged under the same Act on Thursday for accessing PORTS from Changi Prison on 24 July this year to view an inmate’s particulars. He said in court that he intends to engage a lawyer and his case will be heard again on 7 December.

Kobi was first charged on 6 July this year with eight counts of attempting to obtain gratification from an inmate, Chong Keng Chye, who had requested to transfer to a different prison institution. He allegedly received loans of up to $70,000 and as much as $11,000 in cash.

Kobi will be back in court on 21 December. The penalty for unauthorised access to data in a computer is a maximum fine of $5,000 and/or jail of up to two years on a first conviction. In the case of a second or subsequent conviction, the maximum fine is $10,000 and/or a jail term of up to three years.

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