A baggage handler who was upset at his employers has been sentenced to 20 days' jail after swapping 286 luggage tags.

Tay Boon Keh's mischievous act caused the luggage bags of 221 passengers to be sent to unintended destinations, and cost Singapore Airlines and SilkAir compensation totalling more than S$42,000.

The 66-year-old was sentenced on Nov. 11, 2019, after pleading guilty to 20 charges of mischief.

Another 266 charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

Aggrieved and ill-treated

Court documents show that Tay had started working for Lian Cheng Contracting on Sep. 7, 2016.

Lian Cheng Contracting is a sub-contractor of Changi Airport Group supporting baggage handling operations at Terminal 2 of the airport.

By the end of Sep. 2016, Tay had been deployed at the explosives detection system X-ray machine where his duties involved aligning checked-in luggage and ensuring that they are properly placed on the X-ray machine for security screening.

However, the X-ray machine that Tay worked at experienced frequent power failures and broke down several times a day, according to court documents.

When this happened, Tay would have to carry the luggage bags from the broken-down machine to another one that was six metres away.

Tay felt that the work was "very physically tiring" and complained to his supervisor.

As Lian Cheng Contracting was experiencing a manpower shortage, no additional staff were deployed to help Tay.

This caused Tay to feel "aggrieved and ill-treated".

Swapping luggage tags

Out of "frustration and anger" at his employers, Tay then hatched a plan to swap the baggage tags attached to the luggage bags that he handled.

He would wait for two or more luggage bags to arrive at the X-ray machine that he worked at before peeling off the two ends of each baggage tag and reattaching it to another luggage.

This caused ground handling staff and sorting machines downstream to load the affected luggage bags onto the wrong flights, sending them to locations other than their intended destinations.

Tay did this on 286 occasions from Nov. 8, 2016, to Feb. 6, 2017.

The court documents said that he did this out of CCTV view.

He eventually stopped because his actions had not resulted in additional manpower being deployed to assist him.

Meanwhile, SIA and SilkAir had received complaints from 20 passengers of tempered baggage tags, prompting them to take the matter up with Singapore Airport Terminal Services who lodged a police report on Dec. 7, 2016.

Another 266 complaints were received by the airlines between Dec. 8, 2016, and early February 2017.

In total, SIA and SilkAir made compensation payouts amounting to S$42,346 to 221 affected passengers.

Major depressive disorder

In court, Deputy Public Prosecutor Thiam Jian Min asked for Tay to be sentenced to an imprisonment term "in the region of 20 days".

She argued that Tay had acted "knowing that he was likely to cause wrongful loss to his employer".

Thiam also addressed the fact that Tay was suffering from a major depressive disorder (MDD) at the time of the offences.

She cited evidence from a Newton hearing that showed Tay's MDD did not contribute significantly to his offences.

According to CNA, Tay's lawyers Tang Jin Sheng and Lok Vi Ming asked for the court to grant an order of conditional discharge.

This is where the offender is discharged with the condition of not re-offending within a year, or a fine of S$10,000.

They posited that Tay's MDD caused him to lose his self-control, and pointed to the fact that he would go to the toilet during breaks and cry in the cubicle.

Offences not trivial

However, CNA reported that District Judge Jasvender Kaur agreed with the prosecution, accepting the prosecution's psychiatrist Tor Phern Chern's opinion that Tay had "a significant amount of control over his actions".

"The offences are not trivial," she added.

"The accused had come up with a plan to exact revenge on his employer for perceived unfair working conditions and abused his position 286 times over close to three-and-a-half months."

Kaur said that this had affected the numerous victims while also resulting in "significant monetary and reputational losses" to SIA, SilkAir, and Changi Airport.

For each count of mischief, Tay could have been sentenced to up to a year's jail, a fine, or both.

Top image by Belmont Lay