Bomb hoax woman wanted police to drop her home
Housewife who did not have money for transport wanted the police to send her home
by Ong Dai Lin
05:55 AM Jun 16, 2010
SINGAPORE - A woman who lied to the police that an MRT station would be bombed so she could get a ride home has been jailed seven months.
Housewife Zaleha Binte Ahmad, 49, wanted the police to send her home because she did not have enough money for transport.
Using a pay phone at Bukit Batok MRT Station, she called the 999 hotline on May 24 at 2.50pm to say that a man told her to bomb an MRT station.
She told the hotline operator what clothes she was wearing so the police could locate her. When they arrived, she identified herself as the one who made the call but later admitted she had lied.
Yesterday, Zaleha pleaded guilty to lying that a terrorist act would be carried out.
She told District Judge Soh Tze Bian that she will not commit the offence again and requested to be sent to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH). She is currently receiving treatment at the IMH.
In sentencing her, the judge told Zaleha that she had committed a serious offence by alerting the police of a false message and wasted their resources.
She could have been jailed up to five years or fined up to $100,000, or both.
