A POLICE officer's move to strike up a conversation with an errant motorist swayed a judge to fine the accused for offering a bribe instead of sentencing him to a jail term.

Businessman Lim Teck Choon, a prominent Malaysian community leader, was caught for dangerous driving along Woodlands Road in October last year.

While waiting for a police vehicle to arrive and escort Lim, 56, to the Traffic Police Headquarters, the arresting officer, Sergeant Pah Wenxiang, decided to break the ice by 'being friendly' with the accused. After a trial in July, District Judge Jasvender Kaur fined Lim $15,000 for the attempted bribery, although he could have been fined up to $100,000 and/or jailed up to five years. The prosecution appealed and is pressing for a jail term instead.

As part of the appeal process, the judge elaborated on her decision in a written judgment released recently. She said she felt that Lim 'would not have said what he said' had the police officer not started the conversation.

Details of the conversation in question surfaced during the trial.

Lim told Sgt Pah he was a businessman with interests on both sides of the Causeway. He also said he owned plantations in Pengerang, near Kota Tinggi, and they ended up 'talking about fishing and hunting on the plantations'.

Lim also operates a crane leasing business in Singapore. He is a community leader in the town of Kampong Jawa in Johor, where he is deputy chairman of the Malaysian Chinese Association branch. His three grown-up children live and work here with their mother.

In the course of the conversation, Lim told Sgt Pah in Mandarin: 'You should let me go. We can be friends. If you ever visit Malaysia, I will take care of you.'

Sgt Pah told Lim it was an offence to let him off with a bribe. Lim said 'OK' and left it at that.

Nevertheless, Sgt Pah filed a complaint about the attempted bribery later.

In the written judgment, the judge said of the conversation initiated by the police officer: 'While this in no way excuses what the accused did, it puts into proper context his culpability.' She said the sentence would depend on the seriousness of the offence, the circumstances in which it was committed and his degree of guilt for the charge.

During the trial, Sgt Pah initially said he started the conversation but later, under cross-examination, claimed it was Lim who started the chat.

The judge deemed it 'significant' that once Sgt Pah told Lim it was an offence to offer a bribe, he backed off.

She said a jail term was neither 'necessary nor desirable' and a substantial fine sufficed. Lim was also fined $2,500 and banned from driving for six months for the driving offence.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Nov 25, 2008.

For more The Straits Times stories, click here.