Boss jailed for asking tipper truck driver to remove tonnes of coal from overloaded vehicle to avoid penalties
The entire incident lasted more than four hours and involved eight stops and five LTA officers and one traffic police officer. (Photo: Land Transport Authority)
SINGAPORE: A boss who asked his employee to remove three to four tonnes of coal from an overloaded tipper truck to avoid penalties was sentenced to 10 days' jail on Monday (Nov 21).
Chan Jet Huat, 56, pleaded guilty to one count of obstructing the course of justice by instigating Chong Kong Pooi to remove the coal. Another charge was taken into consideration.
Chong was working as a driver for Hiap Tat Holdings, which Chan was a director of.
On Mar 4, 2021, Chong loaded hard coal onto his tipper truck, which had a maximum laden weight of 28 tonnes, and headed from Seletar North Link towards Fort Road.
On the way, he was stopped by a Land Transport Authority (LTA) officer, who suspected that the truck was overloaded. The officer asked Chong to drive to an inspection centre in Marymount for weighing, but Chong knew the truck was overloaded.
According to Chong, he called Chan to tell him what happened, and Chan told him to "just try to run".
On his purported instructions, Chong made multiple moves in an effort to escape, including making sharp turns to evade the LTA officer who was trailing him on his motorcycle.
The entire incident lasted more than four hours and involved eight stops and five LTA officers and one traffic police officer.
Eventually, the truck was towed and impounded at a car park, with a note placed on the truck stating that it was under investigations by LTA.
Later that night, Chan drove his car to the entrance of the inspection centre to pick Chong. They drove around the area looking for the truck.
They found the truck near LTA Sin Ming, and Chan instructed Chong to use the spare key in the side of the truck to start the vehicle.
Chong did so, and Chan instructed Chong to drive the truck about 13km away to Seletar North Link to unload three to four tonnes of coal from the truck. This was to ensure that the laden weight of the truck was below 31 tonnes.
Chong again followed Chan's instructions. They did so as they believed that it would reduce the potential penalties for overloading the truck. As Chong's workplace superior, Chan had influence and superiority over Chong, said the prosecution.
The next morning, Chong brought the truck back to the inspection centre for weighing, but the authorities declined to weigh it as they believed it had been tampered with.
Chong was jailed for one week in October for his role.
Chong's lawyers Josephus Tan and Cory Wong asked for not more than five to seven days' jail.
They said that Chan was Chong's superior, but that there was no evidence to say that he had no choice but to comply with Chan's instructions over choosing to do right by the law.
They said Chan has a 89-year-old wheelchair bound mother who depends on him for assistance.
