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Driver fined $2k for hiring 'fall guy'
By Khushwant Singh
Evangeline Tay Su Ann, 22, paid a property agent $1,000 to take the rap for her when she ran a red light in 2008. She intends to appeal against her $2,000 fine. -- ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM
WHEN she beat a red light in 2008, a friend who was then a police officer suggested that Evangeline Tay Su Ann pay $1,000 for another woman to take the rap.
Yesterday, Tay, 22, was fined $2,000 for perverting the course of justice. Tay, who is studying for a business degree at the Singapore Institute of Management, said through her lawyer that she intends to appeal against the sentence.
Both the police officer and the other woman were jailed earlier.
Former deputy superintendent of police Kelvin Choo Yew Beng, 40, was sentenced to six months in jail in April last year for recruiting Leung Man Kwan to take the rap for Tay. Leung, 35, a property agent, was jailed for three months in 2009.
In Tay's case, District Judge Jill Tan said psychiatric reports indicated there was a 'causal link' between her depression and the committing of the offence. As she had kept on the right side of the law since 2008 and there was little chance of her repeating the offence, the judge found that it was not necessary to impose probation or a jail term.
Tay, who is believed to have appeared in men's magazine Maxim in 2007, had pleaded guilty late last year.
The court had heard then that she ran a red light at the junction of Lornie and Sime roads in January 2008 while driving a Bulgarian business manager's car without his consent. The man was abroad at the time.
Tay, who had been staying in the Bulgarian's house for about six months, knew she had been caught when she saw the traffic camera flash go off.
Worried because she was driving without a licence - on top of without the permission of the car's owner - she turned to Choo for help.
He persuaded his friend Leung to claim she was the driver for the sum of $1,000. The property agent was willing to be the scapegoat because the extra demerit points would have mattered little to her - she was facing more serious traffic-related offences, including that of drink-driving.
When the car's owner received a summons asking for the driver's particulars, he asked Tay about the offence, and she gave him Leung's particulars.
Tay then gave Leung $1,000 through Choo. She also paid the $200 traffic fine for the violation.
Their plot was discovered after a tip-off.
Leung was the first to plead guilty in November 2009, and was jailed three months for being the fall guy. For her other offences, she was jailed in 2008 for two months, fined $4,800 and banned from driving for 11/2 years for hurting a public servant, drink-driving, failing to give a breath specimen and disorderly behaviour.
Tay has already been punished for the traffic offences she committed when she took the car on a joy ride. In 2009, she was fined a total of $1,900 for driving without a licence or insurance, and for beating a red light.
She could have been jailed up to seven years and/or fined up to $10,000 for getting someone to assume criminal liability for running the red light.
By Khushwant Singh
Evangeline Tay Su Ann, 22, paid a property agent $1,000 to take the rap for her when she ran a red light in 2008. She intends to appeal against her $2,000 fine. -- ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM
WHEN she beat a red light in 2008, a friend who was then a police officer suggested that Evangeline Tay Su Ann pay $1,000 for another woman to take the rap.
Yesterday, Tay, 22, was fined $2,000 for perverting the course of justice. Tay, who is studying for a business degree at the Singapore Institute of Management, said through her lawyer that she intends to appeal against the sentence.
Both the police officer and the other woman were jailed earlier.
Former deputy superintendent of police Kelvin Choo Yew Beng, 40, was sentenced to six months in jail in April last year for recruiting Leung Man Kwan to take the rap for Tay. Leung, 35, a property agent, was jailed for three months in 2009.
In Tay's case, District Judge Jill Tan said psychiatric reports indicated there was a 'causal link' between her depression and the committing of the offence. As she had kept on the right side of the law since 2008 and there was little chance of her repeating the offence, the judge found that it was not necessary to impose probation or a jail term.
Tay, who is believed to have appeared in men's magazine Maxim in 2007, had pleaded guilty late last year.
The court had heard then that she ran a red light at the junction of Lornie and Sime roads in January 2008 while driving a Bulgarian business manager's car without his consent. The man was abroad at the time.
Tay, who had been staying in the Bulgarian's house for about six months, knew she had been caught when she saw the traffic camera flash go off.
Worried because she was driving without a licence - on top of without the permission of the car's owner - she turned to Choo for help.
He persuaded his friend Leung to claim she was the driver for the sum of $1,000. The property agent was willing to be the scapegoat because the extra demerit points would have mattered little to her - she was facing more serious traffic-related offences, including that of drink-driving.
When the car's owner received a summons asking for the driver's particulars, he asked Tay about the offence, and she gave him Leung's particulars.
Tay then gave Leung $1,000 through Choo. She also paid the $200 traffic fine for the violation.
Their plot was discovered after a tip-off.
Leung was the first to plead guilty in November 2009, and was jailed three months for being the fall guy. For her other offences, she was jailed in 2008 for two months, fined $4,800 and banned from driving for 11/2 years for hurting a public servant, drink-driving, failing to give a breath specimen and disorderly behaviour.
Tay has already been punished for the traffic offences she committed when she took the car on a joy ride. In 2009, she was fined a total of $1,900 for driving without a licence or insurance, and for beating a red light.
She could have been jailed up to seven years and/or fined up to $10,000 for getting someone to assume criminal liability for running the red light.
