A Burmese national who is working as a Singapore trainee ship officer has been jailed 16 weeks for recording videos of women showering through a pinhole camera pen. The foreign talent was caught only after his female co-tenant found a flashing green light coming from his camera pen while cleaning the toilet. When confronted by the police, Pyae Phyo Aung denied ownership of the pen.
It is only during the same evening he admitted to the crime, and 9 video clips of women showering were found in his laptop.
In his plead for clemency, Pyae Phyo Aung said that he passed the Class 2 Certificate of Competency examination from the Maritime and Port Authority, and he is “in good steed” to be promoted to be a marine captain.
32-year-old Pyae Phyo Aung committed the offenses last year in 2016 when he was still a nautical diploma student with Singapore Polytechnic. Despite the maritime industry losing jobs last year, the Myanmar national was gainfully employed right after graduation and became a ship trainee officer.
Foreigners are more employable than Singaporeans in Singapore due to the additional 17% CPF tax and the yearly disruptive National Service reservist training required. Singapore has near non-existent immigration requirements for foreigners, with no English language test or an immigration point system. The Singapore government intends to increase the population from the current 5.61 million to 6.9 million by 2030.