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$19,000 in fines after $1 coupon offence
By Amanda Phua
The New Paper
Saturday, May 19, 2012
THEIR night out to rejoice over a business deal turned out to be one of the most expensive celebrations they would ever have - all because of a $1 parking coupon that had been tampered with.
A driver and his three buddies ended up having to pay fines totalling $19,000.
On Sept 8, 2009, four close friends drove to the hawker centre at East Coast Lagoon for dinner to celebrate a business deal.
The car was driven by Kelvin Leong Kwok Yin, 29.
His friends were Domenic Ong Yue Ren, 25, Soh Chee Kwang, 35, and Desmond Cheong Kok Foong, 34.
Leong, Ong and Cheong owned and worked at a brokerage and commodity trading company.
Their office was also their home, and Soh would regularly help out in the business. That night, Leong used a parking coupon which had its "used" tabs folded back instead of being torn off.
It is not clear where Leong had got this coupon.
The coupon was spotted by a parking warden.
He saw the group returning at around 8pm and he tried to get Leong's particulars to fill up a summons form.
But Leong snatched the coupon from him and drove off with his three friends. But the parking warden and a colleague had taken pictures of the coupon and filmed the men driving off without settling the summons.
On Feb 3, 2010, the parking warden's colleague made a police report that either Leong or one of his friends had pushed the parking warden.
Leong was called in to give a statement and he claimed the parking warden had asked for a bribe.
Warden framed
In his statement, he claimed the parking warden had said: "You have tampered a coupon and I want you to pay me $20, if not, I will make your life difficult."
When Soh, Cheong and Ong were called up to give their statements, Leong asked them to corroborate his statement.
When the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau questioned the parking warden and then the four men, the friends admitted they had lied.
On Nov 22 last year, Leong was fined $10,000 for providing false information and using a tampered parking coupon.
Ong was fined $3,000 for providing false information.
Yesterday, Soh and Cheong were fined $3,000 each for the same offence.
In mitigation, Mr Yusfiyanto Yatiman, who represented Soh and Cheong, said the pair felt compelled to help Leong because of their friendship.
District Judge Mathew Joseph said he hoped Soh and Cheong realised there could have been dire consequences to their actions, and that they had learnt their lesson.
For providing false information, they could have been jailed for a year and/or fined up to $5,000.
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This article was first published in The New Paper.
