Man roped in third party to take private-hire driver's licence for friend, gets jail
File photo of the State Courts in Singapore. (Photo: Calvin Oh)
SINGAPORE: Seeing that his friend was having issues with his taxing lorry-driving job as he was undergoing chemotherapy, a man suggested to him to work as a private-hire car driver instead.
When he heard that his friend was illiterate, he roped in a third man to pose as his friend and take the English theory papers.
Ng Chai, 62, was given four weeks' jail on Thursday (Dec 17) after pleading guilty to one charge of conspiring to cheat a driving tester by personation.
The court heard that Ng knew lorry driver Tan Chai Meng, 52, through a temple association in Geylang Road. Sometime last year, Ng learnt that Tan had been working as a lorry driver but could not withstand the long hours as he was undergoing chemotherapy for stomach cancer.
Ng asked Tan to consider working as a private-hire car driver with Grab or Gojek, but Tan said he could not speak or write English to pass the required theory test papers.
Ng said he would take the test on Tan's behalf, and registered for the classes and the test slot. However, he realised that he could not take the test as he had been banned from taking the test by the Land Transport Authority after he was caught trying to take it for someone else.
In order to help Tan, Ng asked a third man, 59-year-old Ho Yow Peng, to help take the test for Tan.
On the morning of Jan 2 this year, Ng collected Tan's identification documents and passed them to Ho to facilitate the impersonation for the tests.
Ho went down to the test centre at the CityCab building in 600 Sin Ming Avenue and pretended to be Tan. He presented Tan's NRIC and driver's licence and began taking the first test, but the invigilator noticed that Ho looked different from the photos in Tan's identification documents.
She asked a colleague to take a look, before calling Tan's name three times. However, Ho did not respond until the third time, and did not give any eye contact but continued to stare at the tablet he was taking the test with.
The invigilator questioned Ho, but he managed to convince her that he was Tan and continued to take the test.
Subsequently, the invigilator asked Ho to provide further documents with photo identification on them, but he said he did not have any on him and would do so when he returned later for the second test.
However, when he returned, he produced only Tan's ATM card, which did not have a photo on it. The invigilator asked Ho for Tan's address, and called Ho's number. As Tan had Ho's phone on him, it rang accordingly.
Unconvinced, the invigilator asked Ho why he looked different from the photo in Tan's NRIC. Ho replied that he had been involved in a serious accident, which landed him in hospital for two months and made him lose a lot of weight.
Because Ho had failed the second test, the invigilator asked him to bring other photo identification documents for verification when he returned for a re-test.
The ruse was discovered the next day, when Tan went to the building to ask for a print-out of the test result and was confronted by the invigilator's colleague.
A police report was made over the impersonation.
The prosecutor asked for at least two months' jail, saying that Ng was the mastermind in the conspiracy and was active in the process, enlisting Ho and acting as the liaison.
For abetting cheating by personation, Ng could have been jailed for up to five years, fined, or both.
