Student from SUSS convicted on providing 'untraceable' cars with cloned licence plates to criminals

A 28-year-old student helped provide criminals with cars that were modified to become "untraceable".

On Friday (March 12), Tan Wen Jie, a part-time student with the Singapore University of Social Science (SUSS), pleaded guilty to conspiring to cheat the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the Singapore Customs.

Tan was convicted on three charges of cheating and three charges of making false declarations relating to the export of the cars.

Another nine similar charges will be taken into consideration for sentencing.

At least six other criminal cases have involved the use of the cars, including road traffic violation cases and a case of unlicensed moneylending-related harassment.

In September 2018, Tan conspired with one Lee Wui Liang, 35, to profit from selling and renting deregistered cars.

Tan would buy cars with Certificates of Entitlement (COE) close to expiry, and resell them for profit.

Lee modified the cars in quiet carparks, grinding off the chassis and engine numbers, replacing the licence plate with a cloned licence plate, and replacing the in-vehicle unit (IU) with that of another registered vehicle.

The registration number on the cloned licence plate would belong to an existing, registered car with a similar colour, make, and model.

Tan was the one who sourced for the replacement IUs and cloned licence plates.

The cars were modified so that they could not be traced when used for illegal purposes.

They were sold and rented on Carousell, and through a middleman who earned a commission.

The sales and rentals were done on a 'no questions asked' basis, with no checks on whether the buyer was even legally allowed to drive.

The court was told that the cars were later often used in or used to facilitate criminal activity.

The cars included two BMWs, a Mitsubishi Lancer EX, a Honda Stream, Honda Civic, Honda Jazz and a Mazda 6.

Aside from procuring the vehicles, Tan also facilitated the preparation of documents to make it seem like the vehicles had already been or were going to be exported.

He did this by liaising with middlemen from Scrap Car Shop and Absolute Motors, paying them to do up the paperwork.

The middlemen would get the relevant paperwork done, without actually verifying the status of the cars.

The documents were then submitted to the LTA and Customs.

But the entire operation fell apart after police managed to trace one of the modified cars used in the unlicensed moneylending-related harassment case.

Extensive investigations eventually led to the arrests of the accused, Lee and the other persons involved in their enterprise.

Tan, who is out on $10,000 bail, will return to court on March 25.

For each cheating charge, Tan could be jailed for up to 10 years and may also be fined.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.