Another man jailed for graft over under-reporting weight of baggage at Changi Airport

SINGAPORE — A former Changi Airport baggage handler who swapped the tags of nearly 300 baggage in protest at his work conditions was sentenced to 20 days' jail on Monday (11 November).

Singaporean Tay Boon Keh caused 286 pieces of luggages to be sent to the wrong destination, affecting 221 passengers.

The 65-year-old had felt ill-treated by his company as no additional manpower was deployed to assist him.

On Monday, District Judge Jasvender Kaur noted that Tay was suffering from moderate to severe Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), which was left untreated during the offences, which were committed from November 2016 to February 2017.

“The issue is whether the thought process to swap the baggage tags was a product of his MDD which impaired his decision making capacity and self-control, or was it the product of his sense of injustice at being treated unfairly at work and desire to get back at his employer,” said the judge.

After Tay pleaded guilty to 20 counts of mischief on 26 October last year, his sentencing was adjourned for an ancillary hearing held in March and May this year to determine whether his psychiatric condition had caused or contributed to his offending actions.

DJ Kaur found that Tay’s actions were a result of his sense of injustice and not due to his psychiatric condition.

She accepted an Institute of Mental Health (IMH) psychiatrist’s assessment that Tay’s “strong feeling of injustice caused him to feel upset” and when Tay swapped the baggage tags, he “felt he was getting back at the company and this decreased his sense of injustice thus resulting in him feeling relieved”.

“I find that the accused’s ability to consider the options and his strong feeling of injustice shows that this action in swapping the baggage tags was to avenge the perceived injustice and not due to the MDD,” said the judge.

She also found that the major depressive disorder had also not significantly contributed to his offending.

In sentencing Tay, DJ Kaur described the offences as “not trivial” as Tay had abused his position and had caused “significant monetary and reputational losses” to airlines SilkAir and Singapore Airlines, and Changi Airport. The airlines had to compensate victims more than $40,000.

Facts of the case

Tay was employed by Lian Cheng Contracting, a sub-contractor of Changi Airport Group that handles baggage operations at Terminal 2. Lian Cheng would provide manpower to perform X-ray screenings for luggage.

Tay began work on 7 September 2016 and was deployed to an X-ray machine to align checked-in luggage and ensure they were properly placed in the machine for security screening before being sent to their planes.

However, the X-ray machine Tay was deployed at had frequent breakdowns and Tay had to carry luggage to another X-ray machine about 6m away. He complained about the issue to his supervisor but received no assistance.

Tay thus felt aggrieved and ill-treated by the company. Out of frustration and anger at Lian Cheng, he decided to swap the paper baggage tags attached to the luggage.

He peeled off the ends of tags and placed them on other bags in an area that was out of view of CCTVs. The bags would then be sent to the wrong flights. Among the mix-ups, luggage that had been intended for New Zealand ended up in the Maldives, while some intended for Turkey ended up in Australia.

Tay stopped the acts in February 2017 after realising that his actions had not resulted in additional manpower to his deployed area.

By then, 286 pieces of luggage had been affected.

Due to the incident, Singapore Airlines and SilkAir had to compensate 221 affected passengers with $42,346.59 as of 1 October last year.

Defence counsels Lok Vi Ming and Tang Jin Sheng had previously argued that there was a causal link between the acts and Tay’s MDD, which had deprived him of self-control, and Tay derived temporary relief from switching the baggage tags.

“The fact that his MDD affected his self-control is evidenced by the fact that he would go to the toilet during breaks and cry in the cubicle,” said the defence lawyers, who asked for an order of conditional discharge or a fine of $10,000.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Thiam Jia Min sought a jail term of 20 days for Tay who caused “severe harm” in his actions due to the “large scale of mischief” caused and the losses suffered by the airlines and Changi Airport in terms of reputation and money.

DPP Thiam pointed out that Tay’s actions could have had severe or even fatal consequences for passengers if they were unable to assess medication that was in the lost baggage.

For mischief, Tay could have been jailed up to a year and/or fined on each count.





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