SINGAPORE, Nov 1 — A woman and her companion tried to enter a boarding gate at Changi Airport for their flight to Amsterdam, but they were denied entry as they did not have the valid visas.

The woman then tried to bribe two officers with around US$50 (RM238) each. Both officers turned her down.

Today, the woman, 52-year-old Chinese national Zeng Xiuying, was sentenced to four weeks’ jail after pleading guilty to offering a gratification to an agent under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Another similar charge was taken into consideration during sentencing.

The court heard that on the afternoon of October 16 this year, Zeng and her companion Wu Zhangwang arrived in Singapore at Changi Airport Terminal 1 on a flight from Koh Samui, Thailand.

The pair were transiting in Singapore as they had plane tickets for a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight that was headed to Amsterdam, Netherlands at 12.40am on October 17.

When they arrived at departure gate C15, they were screened by Suriah Samsi, an agent of KLM employed by Sats Security Services.

As the two did not possess valid visas to travel to Amsterdam, Suriah denied them entry to the boarding area and flagged the matter to other KLM staff.

The airline also decided not to allow the pair to board the flight.

Ronald Michael Jansen, a Certis Cisco officer, was asked to help inform Zeng and Wu, in Mandarin, that they were not permitted to board.

Jansen did as he was told, then told the pair that they could head to the KLM airline counter at the departure hall or call the KLM hotline.

He later noticed that both Zeng and Wu were still near the departure gate, talking to other auxiliary police officers, and decided to approach them again.

When he was near the pair, Zeng put her hand around his shoulder and gave him around US$50, asking him to help her speak to the airline to let her board the flight.

Jansen refused and repeatedly told her that he could not take her money.

He went to the counter to check again whether Zeng and her companion could board the flight, but the staff there reiterated that the pair could not.

When he returned to speak to Zeng, she gave him her travel itinerary with a bundle of US dollar notes concealed in it. Jansen again rejected the money and left.

Tried to bribe KLM agent

At some point later, while the pair were still near departure gate C15, Suriah asked for Zeng’s passport to ascertain her travel history.

Zeng passed the KLM agent her passport along with at least US$50 concealed underneath and asked Suriah to "help her” in Mandarin.

Suriah rejected the money.

Zeng was subsequently arrested for attempting to bribe Jansen and Suriah.

During investigations, Zeng admitted that she had tried to bribe both officers so that they could help her and her companion board the KLM flight to Amsterdam.

However, Zeng claimed that she had offered them only a single US$50 note — which was seized from her for investigations.

In court, Zeng, who was unrepresented, pleaded for a lighter sentence as she claimed that she gave the officers the money so that they could help her ask the airline for the reason she could not board the plane.

For corruptly offering gratification to an agent, Zeng could have been jailed for up to five years or fined up to S$100,000 (RM348,361), or both. — TODAY