Repeat offender guilty of instigating 2 prison officers to get him information on other inmates

Source: The Straits Times
Author: Shaffiq Alkhatib

SINGAPORE - A secret society headman was behind bars serving a 15-year sentence over a drug-related offence when he instigated two prison officers to obtain for him classified information on the other prisoners.

With Abdul Karim Mohamed Kuppai Khan's instigation, Muhammad Zul Helmy Abdul Latip went on the Singapore Prison Service's (SPS) computer system to retrieve the home addresses and ages of rival gang members.

The other officer, Muhammad Fattahullah Mohd Nordin, retrieved from the system the prison location of other inmates.

On May 15, Abdul Karim, 38 pleaded guilty to multiple charges including abetting the pair, who are no longer prison officers, to commit offences under the Computer Misuse Act.

Fattahullah, then 38, was sentenced to 10 weeks' jail In August 2022 while Helmy, then 33, was sentenced to seven weeks' jail the following month.

The prosecution said: "Fattahullah and Helmy (had) acceded to his requests because they knew the accused was a disruptive inmate.

"They provided the information in the hope that the accused would not create trouble for them in the course of their work."

Deputy public prosecutors Claire Poh, Gabriel Lee, Kelvin Chong and Louis Ngia stated in court documents that Abdul Karim is a recalcitrant offender with numerous antecedents.

Among other things, he was sentenced to two years and six months' jail in 2004 for theft, and sentenced to three years' jail with 12 strokes of the cane in 2007 for robbery.

He was serving his 15-year sentence for a drug-related offence at Tanah Merah Prison when he committed the offences linked to Fattahullah and Helmy, who were working there at the time.

Abdul Karim was then housed under the Administrative Segregation Regime (ASR).

The DPPs told the court that inmates were put under ASR for various reasons including poor conduct and gang-related activities. ASR inmates also have their privileges curtailed and are housed in individual cells.

On five occasions between January and June 2020, Abdul Karim asked Fattahullah for the location of other inmates who were also behind bars at the time.

Fattahullah accessed the prison's computer system and shared the information with him.

On Oct 13, 2020, Abdul Karim spoke to Helmy as he wanted to find out some personal information on two other inmates, identified in court documents as V1 and V2.

Helmy went onto SPS' computer system, retrieved the necessary information and shared it with Abdul Karim.

The information passed included V2's home address, which Abdul Karim wrote down on a piece of paper.

Some time in October 2020, Abdul Karim threatened V1 by saying that he knew V1's home address.

The prosecution said: "The accused then accurately recited V1's residential address to him, which V1 had never provided the accused with, with the intent to cause V1 alarm.

"(The computer-related offences) were only detected when the SPS conducted a check on the accused's cell, and found a handwritten note containing V1 and V2's addresses, as well as the contact number of V2's girlfriend."

Fattahullah and Helmy were later charged in court in November 2021.

Separately, Abdul Karim also committed multiple traffic offences.

He did not have a valid licence when he drove a car along Bukit Batok Road towards Jurong Town Hall Road at around 3am on April 30, 2015.

He arrived at a road block, and a police officer asked for his particulars. Abdul Karim then claimed to be one "Mohd Farock" but the truth emerged when a second officer conducted a search and found Abdul Karim's passport.

Abdul Karim finally admitted that another man had earlier rented the car. Police contacted the man who told officers that he had left the car keys in Abdul Karim's presence after the pair had a drinking session.

However, the man, who was drunk at the time, did not give Abdul Karim permission to drive off with the vehicle. Abdul Karim was later found to have a knife in his possession and was arrested.

He was out on bail when he reoffended by driving another car in the Punggol area at around 9.30pm on Aug 11, 2015.

Officers from the Central Narcotics Bureau followed it, and they arrested Abdul Karim after he alighted at a petrol station in Upper Serangoon Road at around 10pm.

Abdul Karim's mitigation and sentencing are expected to take place on June 20.