Source:
Linkie
SINGAPORE: For nine years, he managed to cheat the
Traffic Police without being detected.
But on Thursday, Lim Tian Pong, the owner of a company which used
to maintain the radar camera system the Traffic Police uses to
monitor motorists' speeds, was jailed 18 months for cheating and
for forgery offences.
The Traffic Police had specifically stated in their scope of
requirements that the components for the system must be sent to a
surveillance company, Multanova AG in Switzerland, for
calibration.
But Lim, the 60-year-old sole-proprietor of Tian Supply and Service
Trading, forged certificates and sent the antennas to China
instead.
He forged 14 calibration certificates between August 2002 and July
2009.
Lim had created a logo which looked like Multanova AG's and
displayed it on the bogus certificates.
The documents also stated that the antennas were supposedly
calibrated by somebody known as "C Hauser".
Lim then submitted the fake certificates to the Traffic Police, who
paid more than S$94,000 for the calibration services not performed
by Multanova AG.
Lim, who was represented by lawyers Subhas Anandan and Sunil
Sudheesan, also admitted that he had cheated the Traffic Police of
about S$51,000 between March 2000 and March 2004 by using a similar
ruse.
In one of the cases, he merely presented the authorities with an
invoice stating that the checks done on the antennas were performed
in Switzerland.
In his mitigation plea, Mr Anandan said Lim committed the offences
as he had lost confidence in Multanova because of the firm's
failure to deliver.
However, Deputy Public Prosecutor Magdalene Huang said the offences
were premeditated and committed over nine years.
Lim also admitted that he had continued to run his business even
though the company's registration with the Accounting and Corporate
Regulatory Authority (ACRA) had been cancelled on May 2 2006, as he
had failed to pay the annual renewal fee.
He only re-registered it on December 10 2008.
-CNA/ac
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Rather routine piece of crime news..... except for the bit on
'C Hauser'.
Why does this remind me of:
