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http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,186036,00.html?
She went through MRT turnstile without paying
Then shouted at SMRT officer for questioning her
Now she is...
Fined $700 for evading $1.22 fare
December 08, 2008
ST FILE PICTURE
AS a commuter walked through the MRT turnstile after swiping her ez-link card, a woman following closely behind her rushed through as well.
Lee Heng Anne, 55, did this just to avoid paying the $1.22 fare for her train journey from Aljunied to Simei.
But she ended up having to pay the $700 fine imposed by the district court.
At 8pm on 25 Sep last year, Lee, who owns a family-run business, was on her way after work to visit one of her parents, who was warded in Changi General Hospital.
A customer service officer at Aljunied MRT station saw her trying to evade paying the fare and asked for her ez-link card, a stored value card.
Lee not only refused to hand it over, but also shouted at the officer.
The officer called for help and when the station manager, Mr Lai Tat Keong, arrived, he saw that Lee was still shouting at the officer.
When Lee finally handed over her card, a printout showed that she had last used it on bus service 26 earlier that evening and not in Aljunied MRT station.
It also showed that Lee had entered and exited the MRT system four times without tapping her card between 20 and 23 Sep.
After seeing the printout, Lee claimed she had four ez-link cards and could have produced the wrong one.
When Mr Lai requested to check the four cards, she could only produce another card that had a negative value and could not be used.
A notice of offence was issued and a report subsequently put up against her.
Closed-circuit TV footage, which was played in court, showed Lee walking closely behind another woman as she entered the gate.
The green light on the reader had flashed when the first woman walked through, but not when Lee walked through.
There was also no card in Lee's hand when she moved it across the reader.
In her defence, Lee insisted that she had tapped her card. She said she had to switch a packet of food she was carrying to her left hand so that she could tap her card.
Faulty machine
As to why there was no green light, she claimed the machine was faulty and did not register her card. She said this had happened 'many times especially when she alights from the MRT on (her) way home'.
District Judge Salina Ishak, however, noted in her judgment that there was no indication the reader was faulty, as the green light had flashed when other commuters had used the same gate before and after Lee.
The accused also claimed she was not following the passenger in front of her closely. Instead, the woman had cut across her path from the right as she was approaching the gate.
As Lee could not provide any evidence to support her assertions, the judge rejected her defence and meted out a $700 fine.
The sentence was to deter Lee and other like-minded offenders from committing such offences again, because she was neither remorseful nor did she make an attempt to offer any mitigating factors for the judge to consider.
Judge Salina added: 'I saw no reason for her to react in the manner that she did (to the customer service officer) when she was asked to produce her card for inspection, if indeed it was an honest mistake or inadvertence on her part.
'She continued her tirade even when Mr Lai intervened in the matter. In my mind, it was clear that she was deliberately trying to distract the SMRT officers from performing their duties as well as to avoid facing the consequences for fare evasion.'
She also felt that detection of such cases is made more difficult because the barriers now remain open for longer than before to allow parents with young children as well as the elderly to pass through safely.
Lee could have been fined up to $2,000 for her offence. She has paid the fine, but is appealing against her conviction and sentence.
A Land Transport Authority spokesman said that 158 fare-evasion cases have gone before the court since 2007.
Some of the ways in which commuters cheat include misusing concession cards and tailgating when entering or exiting the train station.
An SMRT spokesman said: 'We would like to stress that fare evasion is a serious problem that needs to be addressed, as it is unfair to the bulk of commuters who pay the correct fare.'
She went through MRT turnstile without paying
Then shouted at SMRT officer for questioning her
Now she is...
Fined $700 for evading $1.22 fare
December 08, 2008
ST FILE PICTURE
AS a commuter walked through the MRT turnstile after swiping her ez-link card, a woman following closely behind her rushed through as well.
Lee Heng Anne, 55, did this just to avoid paying the $1.22 fare for her train journey from Aljunied to Simei.
But she ended up having to pay the $700 fine imposed by the district court.
At 8pm on 25 Sep last year, Lee, who owns a family-run business, was on her way after work to visit one of her parents, who was warded in Changi General Hospital.
A customer service officer at Aljunied MRT station saw her trying to evade paying the fare and asked for her ez-link card, a stored value card.
Lee not only refused to hand it over, but also shouted at the officer.
The officer called for help and when the station manager, Mr Lai Tat Keong, arrived, he saw that Lee was still shouting at the officer.
When Lee finally handed over her card, a printout showed that she had last used it on bus service 26 earlier that evening and not in Aljunied MRT station.
It also showed that Lee had entered and exited the MRT system four times without tapping her card between 20 and 23 Sep.
After seeing the printout, Lee claimed she had four ez-link cards and could have produced the wrong one.
When Mr Lai requested to check the four cards, she could only produce another card that had a negative value and could not be used.
A notice of offence was issued and a report subsequently put up against her.
Closed-circuit TV footage, which was played in court, showed Lee walking closely behind another woman as she entered the gate.
The green light on the reader had flashed when the first woman walked through, but not when Lee walked through.
There was also no card in Lee's hand when she moved it across the reader.
In her defence, Lee insisted that she had tapped her card. She said she had to switch a packet of food she was carrying to her left hand so that she could tap her card.
Faulty machine
As to why there was no green light, she claimed the machine was faulty and did not register her card. She said this had happened 'many times especially when she alights from the MRT on (her) way home'.
District Judge Salina Ishak, however, noted in her judgment that there was no indication the reader was faulty, as the green light had flashed when other commuters had used the same gate before and after Lee.
The accused also claimed she was not following the passenger in front of her closely. Instead, the woman had cut across her path from the right as she was approaching the gate.
As Lee could not provide any evidence to support her assertions, the judge rejected her defence and meted out a $700 fine.
The sentence was to deter Lee and other like-minded offenders from committing such offences again, because she was neither remorseful nor did she make an attempt to offer any mitigating factors for the judge to consider.
Judge Salina added: 'I saw no reason for her to react in the manner that she did (to the customer service officer) when she was asked to produce her card for inspection, if indeed it was an honest mistake or inadvertence on her part.
'She continued her tirade even when Mr Lai intervened in the matter. In my mind, it was clear that she was deliberately trying to distract the SMRT officers from performing their duties as well as to avoid facing the consequences for fare evasion.'
She also felt that detection of such cases is made more difficult because the barriers now remain open for longer than before to allow parents with young children as well as the elderly to pass through safely.
Lee could have been fined up to $2,000 for her offence. She has paid the fine, but is appealing against her conviction and sentence.
A Land Transport Authority spokesman said that 158 fare-evasion cases have gone before the court since 2007.
Some of the ways in which commuters cheat include misusing concession cards and tailgating when entering or exiting the train station.
An SMRT spokesman said: 'We would like to stress that fare evasion is a serious problem that needs to be addressed, as it is unfair to the bulk of commuters who pay the correct fare.'
