Man who made more than 1,000 silent calls to police ‘for fun and enjoyment’ gets jail
The calls were made to four Neighbourhood Police Centres in Ang Mo Kio North, Bedok, Geylang and Yishun. At Yishun alone, officers answered 330 silent calls.
Foo Jia Hong arriving at the State Courts on Aug 26, 2026. (Photo: CNA/Alyssa Tan)
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SINGAPORE: A man who made more than 1,000 silent calls to the police “for fun and enjoyment” was sentenced to 23 days’ jail on Wednesday (Aug 26).
Foo Jia Hong, a 37-year-old Singaporean, pleaded guilty to a charge of voluntarily obstructing officers manning the counter at Yishun Neighbourhood Police Centre (NPC) by making 425 silent calls to its landline.
Another three charges for the remaining calls made to police centres in Ang Mo Kio North, Bedok and Geylang were taken into consideration.
Between Apr 21 and 29 this year, Ang Mo Kio North NPC, Bedok NPC, Geylang NPC and Yishun NPC received numerous calls on their landlines from an unknown number where the caller remained silent.
The number was registered in the name of a foreign worker, who was investigated and claimed that he had thrown away the SIM card attached to the number.
The court heard that Foo had bought a second-hand mobile phone cover at a night market in Ang Mo Kio in early 2026. In the phone cover, he found a SIM card by telecommunication service provider Simba and decided to use it.
The police found that he had used the number to call the police centres.
Foo admitted using call directories or leaflets from the NPCs to obtain the landlines, adding that he had made the calls “for fun and enjoyment”.
Out of the 425 calls made to Yishun NPC, 330 were picked up by four officers while the rest were not answered.
The unanswered calls also resulted in obstruction to the phone lines because subsequent phone calls were put on hold in a queue, preventing other calls from being answered promptly, the prosecution said.
Foo was arrested in May and later remanded at the Institute of Mental Health for psychiatric assessment.
He was found to have mild intellectual disability, but the institute’s report found that this had no contributory link to the offences.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Jun Kai sought three to five weeks’ jail for Foo, noting a previous conviction in January 2025 for the communication of false messages, but did not elaborate.
Mr Ng also said that there were no similar precedents for this specific offence, but a large number of calls had been made to the NPCs, disrupting non-emergency numbers.
Defence lawyer Daniel Atticus Xu sought two weeks’ jail and highlighted that calling the NPCs was not equivalent to calling the 999 emergency hotline.
In sentencing, District Judge Koo Zhi Xuan said the court had to consider and grapple with the fact that Foo has mild intellectual disability, while the foremost sentencing consideration was deterrence.
For obstructing a public servant in the discharge of his public functions, Foo could have been jailed for up to six months or fined up to S$6,500, or both.
Source: CNA/ll(sf)
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