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SINGAPORE – A 28-year-old student helped provide criminals with cars that were modified so they couldn’t be traced.
On Friday (March 12), Tan Wen Jie, a part-time student at Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), pleaded guilty to conspiring to mislead the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and Singapore Customs.
Tan was convicted of three counts of cheating and three counts of making false statements related to the export of the cars.
Nine other similar charges will be taken into consideration for sentencing.
At least six other criminal cases have involved car use, including traffic violation cases and one harassment case related to unlicensed money lending.
In September 2018, Tan conspired with one 35-year-old Lee Wui Liang to profit from the sale and rental of unregistered cars.
Tan would buy cars with Certificates of Ownership (COEs) near expiration and resell them for profit.
Lee modified the cars in quiet parking lots, rectifying the chassis and engine numbers, replacing the license plate with a cloned plate, and replacing the in-vehicle unit (UI) with that of another registered vehicle.
The registration number on the cloned license plate would belong to an existing registered car with a similar color, make and model.
Tan was the one who acquired the replacement UIs and the cloned license plates.
The cars were modified so that they could not be tracked when used for illegal purposes.
They were sold and rented at Carousell, and through a broker who earned a commission.
Sales and rentals were made without questions, without verifying if the buyer was legally authorized to drive.
The court was informed that the cars were subsequently used frequently or used to facilitate criminal activity.
The cars included two BMWs, a Mitsubishi Lancer EX, a Honda Stream, Honda Civic, Honda Jazz, and a Mazda 6.
In addition to acquiring the vehicles, Tan also facilitated the preparation of documents to make it appear that the vehicles had already been or were to be exported.
He did this by contacting intermediaries at Scrap Car Shop and Absolute Motors, paying them to do the paperwork.
The intermediaries would do the relevant paperwork, without actually checking the condition of the cars.
The documents were then sent to the LTA and Customs.
But the entire operation fell apart after police managed to track down one of the modified cars used in the unlicensed money lending harassment case.
Over time, extensive investigations led to the arrest of the defendant, Lee, and the others involved in his company.
Lee’s case is still in court. He faces a total of 77 charges.
Tan, who is out on $ 10,000 bail, will return to court on March 25.
For each count of cheating, Tan could be jailed for up to 10 years and can also be fined.
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