SINGAPORE — Disgruntled that his colleague was receiving better treatment than him, an engineer at national broadcaster Mediacorp cut several cables on two vehicles owned by the company.

For his actions, Quek Peh Jia was ordered to pay a fine of S$5,000 on Tuesday (Aug 4). The 34-year-old has since been fired by Mediacorp.

He pleaded guilty to one charge of committing mischief that resulted in the disruption of a key service, with another charge taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that in June 2019, Quek was working at the company’s transmitting station at Bukit Batok when he felt that his senior engineer colleague was being treated better than he was. He also had gripes over an alleged disparity in work assignments.

Armed with a wire cutter, he cut the nitrogen oxide sensor cable on a prime mover. He said that he did this so that his colleague would be blamed for the faulty cable, and because he was discontented with Mediacorp.

He claimed not to know the function of the cable, having chosen it because it was the only one he could easily access from outside the prime mover.

Repairing the cable cost S$2,471. Its function is to detect nitrogen oxides in combustion environments such as a truck tailpipe.

Court documents showed that he also cut the cables to a front windscreen wiper, headlights and tail lights of a company lorry, causing S$447 in damages.

The role of the vehicles in Mediacorp’s operations was not made clear in the proceedings.

The lead transmission officer at Mediacorp made a police report on Aug 28 last year.

When investigations, including closed-circuit television footage, revealed that Quek had cut the lorry cables, he admitted to having cut the nitrogen oxide sensor cable as well.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Gabriel Lim sought the fine imposed, saying that Quek had “some malicious intent” to cause trouble for his colleague.

While there was a relatively high potential for harm to be caused, the prosecutor did not seek a custodial sentence because the nitrogen oxide sensor cable “did not relate to the primary functions of the vehicle”.

The fine — about twice the cost of damages to that cable — would be suitable, DPP Lim said. District Judge Tan Jen Tse agreed that it was a “reasonable” sentence.

Quek had nothing to say in mitigation.

He could have been jailed for up to 10 years or fined, or both.