Former cabby jailed for impersonating cop
By Alvina Soh | Posted: 15 December 2011 1430 hrs
SINGAPORE: A former taxi driver, who pretended to be a policeman to cheat a friend of S$24,000 in 2003, ran away to China for more than five years.
In plotting his return after overstaying in China where he was jobless, he created a rubber stamp with a Singapore Police Force crest to "endorse" his own passport after he altered the expiry date.
Goh Eng Leng, 48, was jailed 14 months in the Subordinate Courts on Thursday for falsifying his passport and for cheating by impersonation.
His first attempt to pretend to be a police officer was in 2003 when he cheated fellow Singaporean Chan Seng Huat, 49, of S$24,000.
Goh told Chan that he was a police superintendent with the Volunteer Special Constabulary of the Singapore Police Force and said Chan had two complaints against him from his two previous employers that he had taken money from them.
He then duped Chan into handing over S$24,000 in cash, claiming that it was needed to settle the complaints.
In that ruse, Goh used a fake police name card and a pair of police epaulettes worn on the uniform.
He then left Singapore in 2003 to China looking for a job.
He overstayed for more than five years and was worried of a long jail term in China if caught there.
That was when he decided to break a Singapore law to be repatriated.
He forged his own passport with the Singapore Police Force crest and informed Chinese authorities about it so that he can be repatriated to Singapore to face charges here.
The father-of-two was arrested two months after coming to Singapore in July 2010.
In court Thursday, his lawyer Subhas Anandan said in mitigation that Goh, whose wife passed away in 2005, was remorseful.
He added that Goh acknowledged that it was a "stupid act to run away from Chinese authorities".
- CNA/cc
