A man was sentenced to nine weeks' jail on Wednesday for
offering his nephew money and a job for taking the rap on his
behalf for a driving offence.
Mohd Yusof Mohd Ali, 58, was driving a car along Jurong West
Street 75 without a licence on Nov 8, 2009 when he was involved in
an accident. He pleaded guilty to the driving offence as well as to
offering $1,000 and a job to his nephew in return for his nephew
lying to the police that he was the driver of the car at the time,
reports The Straits Times.
This was the fifth time that Yusof had driven without a valid
licence. District Judge Marvin Bay imposed the jail term and banned
him from driving for five years.
The court heard that he settled the traffic accident by paying
off the other party $300 when their vehicles were involved in the
accident at the junction of Jurong West Street 75 and Jurong West
Street 73. Later that month, he told his nephew, Muhammad Norzaid
Muhammad Yazid Johari, then 24, about the accident, and that he had
been driving without a Class 3 licence. He asked Norzaid to lie
that the latter was driving the car at the time him to shield him
from criminal liability. He promised to pay him $1,000 and offered
him help to get a job, if everything went well.
Both men went to the Traffic Police and gave false
statements.
Norzaid was fined $4,000 earlier this year for giving a false
statement to the police.
Yusof, whose sentence was deferred until Nov 15, could have been
jailed for up to seven years and/or fined for perverting the course
of justice.
The Subordinate Court on 24 October 2013