SINGAPORE - A private-hire driver caught driving in a careless manner gave a friend $10,000 for a third party to take the fall for the offence, but the friend used his unsuspecting wife’s details instead when he could not find someone.

Candy Mcdonald, also known as Lim Siew Ping, eventually confessed to the police that she was the driver.

On Tuesday, the 51-year-old was sentenced to four days’ jail and a fine of $2,500 after she pleaded guilty to one count each of careless driving and obstructing the course of justice.

She was also disqualified from holding or obtaining all classes of driving licences for a period of 15 months.

Her friend Koh Chew Seng initially did not suspect a thing when he received a summon letter from the Traffic Police in June 2020, which said a car from his workplace was used to commit an offence of careless driving.

The driver was to pay a composition amount of $200 with six demerit points.

Koh then contacted Mcdonald, who admitted that she was the driver. It emerged that while ferrying passengers on May 16, 2020, she had driven against the flow of traffic to overtake another vehicle.

The driver of the other vehicle had to apply the brakes to avoid a collision. Court documents did not disclose the location of the incident.

The two of them knew each other because in December 2019, Koh had advised Mcdonald to rent a car from Koheng Auto, a company he was managing. His wife was the sole proprietor.

After committing the offence, Mcdonald asked Koh for help as she was reluctant to receive demerit points. She also did not want her driving licence to be revoked, which would impact her job, said Deputy Public Prosecutor R. Arvindren.

After some discussions, the pair came to an agreement that Koh would find another driver willing to assume criminal liability on her behalf. In exchange, she would give $10,000.

The DPP said: “During the following days, Koh started to find potential drivers willing to assume liability for the offence but could not find any. After some time, Koh thought of pinning the liability on (his wife) instead, given that both (she and Mcdonald) were female drivers.”

Koh then used a Corp Pass account belonging to Koheng Auto to submit his wife’s personal particulars to the Traffic Police and later received a summon letter addressed to her.

He proceeded to pay the $200 composition amount from Koheng Auto’s bank account, which was registered under his wife’s name. The DPP said that Koh did this without the knowledge of both Mcdonald and his wife.

In July 2020, Mcdonald started paying the $10,000 sum by transferring money to the bank account.

When Koh’s wife asked him about additional sums received in the bank account, he told her not to “ask so much”.

Mcdonald came clean to the police on Jan 14, 2021. Court documents did not disclose what spurred her to do so.

On Tuesday, defence lawyer Wee Hong Shern from Ong and Co law firm pleaded for his client to be given a day’s jail and a fine of $2,000.

He said: “She had come forward to confess...(to) a crime which would have gone undetected if not for her courage in facing the music.”

Mcdonald’s bail has been set at $15,000 and she is expected to surrender herself at the State Courts on Nov 18 to begin serving her jail term.

Koh was dealt with earlier and sentenced to a week’s jail.

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