Juhari Supari, 52-years-old, was jailed on 3 December for 3 days and given a fine of $1,800, as well as being disqualified from driving all classes of vehicles for a year.
He pleaded guilty to three charges, leaving his home to provide a carpooling service which is illegal under the Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) Act.
He had left his home during the circuit breaker period last year to provide carpooling services with his car.
What happened?
Juhari was part of a Telegram group chat called SGHitch which was later renamed to Covid-19 Lockdown SGHitch after 16 April.
He posted a message in the group 6 days later, saying “driver looking for pax”, to which a customer named Decha responded and he then accepted the job for $7.
He was tasked with ferrying the customer from Block 447A Fernvale Road to Novena Square.
Two male passengers boarded his car at about 5.20pm and he was stopped by an LTA officer along Yio Chu Kang Road while en route to the customer’s destination.
He then told the customers to tell the LTA officer that they were the friends of the driver, to which the officer asked Juhari for their names but he couldn’t answer.