Police officer at the operations desk answering a phone call (for illustration purposes only)
Man called Singapore police centres 1,035 times in 7 days, stayed silent when answered, gets 23-day jail sentence
SINGAPORE: On Aug 26 (Wednesday), a 23-day jail sentence was given to a man who made more than 1,000 phone calls to four different police centres in Singapore from April 21 to 28, 2026, but kept silent when the calls were answered.
Thirty-seven-year-old Foo Jia Hong, a Singaporean national, entered a guilty plea to voluntarily obstructing the officers at Yishun Neighbourhood Police Centre (NPC).
According to reporting from CNA, Foo made 425 silent calls to Yishun NPC, and hundreds more at police centres in Ang Mo Kio North, Bedok and Geylang, for a total of 1,035. Three additional charges in relation to these calls were taken into consideration for Foo’s sentencing.
The offence of obstructing a public servant in the discharge of his public functions has a maximum jail sentence of six months and a fine of as much as S$6,500.
After successfully tracing where the calls came from, the police arrested Foo in May, after which he was remanded at the Institute of Mental Health for psychiatric assessment.
Although he was diagnosed with a mild intellectual disability, the report from IMH said this condition did not directly contribute to his offences.
The prosecution asked for a jail sentence of three to five weeks for Foo, with Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Jun Kai mentioning that he had been convicted for another offence at the beginning of last year.
Foo’s lawyer Daniel Atticus Xu, meanwhile, asked for a two-week jail sentence for Foo, pointing out that he had made his calls to police centres, and not to the hotline for emergencies.
District Judge Koo Zhi Xuan acknowledged Foo’s mild disability, but added that deterrence needed to be considered for his sentencing.
The backstory
The police first released a statement on Foo’s case on May 12, saying that he had taken elaborate measures to conceal his identity, including using a foreign number to make the calls.
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After his identity was established, officers from Woodlands Police Division arrested him on May 11.
The number that Foo used in calling the police centres had been registered to a foreign worker, who said he had thrown away the SIM card for that number.
Foo had found the SIM card at a night market in Ang Mo Kio earlier this year, when he purchased a second-hand mobile phone.
He admitted to having made the calls for “fun and enjoyment.” /TISG