SINGAPORE, May 24 — Despite not having a ticket when he arrived in Singapore for American singer Bruno Mars’ concerts at the National Stadium last month, Karl Phillippe Njiomo Tengueu found another way to enter the venue.

The 23-year-old from Cameroon forged a fake pass for Singapore Sports Hub workers, which gave him access to the stadium on April 3, the first night of Mars’ concerts. He was caught after he tried to watch the show a second time.

For his actions, Tengueu was sentenced to 10 weeks’ jail today after he pleaded guilty to a charge each of criminal trespass, cheating and committing forgery.

Another three similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

What happened

The court heard that Tengueu arrived in Singapore on April 2, intending to watch the Bruno Mars concert even though he did not have a valid ticket.

He visited the Singapore Sports Hub that same day, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Lee Da Zhuan told the court.

While he walked around, he noticed that some of the staff members — who had Singapore Sports Hub work passes — were able to enter the National Stadium freely.

Tengueu then devised a plan to gain entry by pretending that he was a Singapore Sports Hub worker.

To do this, he approached several individuals with the pass and struck up a conversation with them.

As he conversed with them, he took videos of their passes using his mobile phone.

Videos played in court showed Tengueu approaching two different persons, one with the front of his pass displayed and another with the back of his pass shown.

The next day, April 3, Tengueu took a screenshot of a pass from the video he recorded and used photo-editing application Photoshop to make a fake one on his laptop.

He did this by digitally affixing his photograph and adding his name "Karl Philippe” onto the digital photo.

He then located a printing shop and made an order to print multiple copies of the fake pass, as well as a forged VIP ticket for the concert.

At about 8pm that day, Tengueu went to the concert venue wearing a lanyard with his forged Singapore Sports Hub pass and a reflective vest to masquerade as a staff member.

He then posted an Instagram Story on his personal Instagram account, which was a short video of him showing his outfit, with text stating: "I’m trying to get into the concert of Bruno Mars without having any ticket.”

With the forged pass, security officers stationed at the venue allowed Tengueu to enter the National Stadium without having to go through security checks.

No checks were conducted on his forged pass and none of the security officers stopped him, DPP Lee said.

Sometime during the concert, Tengueu also tried to gain entry into the VIP area but was stopped by a security officer who asked if he was authorised to be in the area.

Shortly before Tengueu left, the security officer also took a photo of the fake pass.

Despite this, Tengueu stayed in the National Stadium for the duration of the concert and was able to leave undetected.

Singapore Sports Hub’s security officers were later alerted after the officer, who had a photo of Tengueu’s forged pass, sought to verify its legitimacy.

When they were not able to locate Tengueu, the security officers were instructed to look out for him on the subsequent concert days.

Tengueu was eventually arrested on April 5 when he tried to gain access again using the same method.

High level of premeditation

Seeking a jail term of 14 to 18 weeks, DPP Lee argued that there was a high level of premeditation in Tengueu’s offences since he had gone to significant lengths to execute his plan.

"This was by no means an impulsive act but a series of actions carefully calculated to reach his end goal of gaining access to the concert illegitimately,” DPP Lee said.

He added that Tengueu’s offences had the potential to cause significant harm since he had spread his method of trespassing into the National Stadium on social media.

"It speaks further to the potential damage done to the security of such large-scale events if more were to emulate his actions of flippantly flouting security checks and cheating their way into venues,” DPP Lee added.

For committing forgery, Tengueu could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

For cheating, he could have been jailed for up to three years or fined, or both.

For committing criminal trespass, he could have been jailed for up to three months or fined up to S$1,500 (RM5,236), or both. — TODAY