A Malaysian woman, Deivanai Karunanithi, has been sentenced to three weeks in jail for modifying her motorcycle’s license plate to evade Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) charges in Singapore. Between October 2019 and February 2020, she committed 68 ERP-related offenses and five illegal parking offenses, according to records from the Land Transport Authority (LTA).
According to CNA, The 28-year-old security officer, who held a work permit, would commute from Malaysia to Singapore using her motorcycle with the correct license plate number, JTH1825, displayed on both the front and rear. However, after entering Singapore and reaching the Bukit Timah Expressway, she would switch the “1” and the “8” on the rear plate to read JTH8125, allowing her to avoid ERP charges. This deceitful tactic was employed on 14 occasions between October and November 2019.
Deivanai’s offenses were uncovered on February 21, 2020, when an LTA officer noticed the discrepancy in the license plate numbers while her motorcycle was parked along Bayfront Avenue. The officer conducted a check on the rear plate number, JTH8125, and found no record of a vehicle with that number in LTA’s system. A subsequent check on the front plate number, JTH1825, revealed that it was registered in LTA’s system.
The motorcycle was impounded for investigations, which revealed that Deivanai was the owner and had been using the modified license plate to evade ERP charges. She was convicted of 14 counts of failing to ensure that the identification mark of a vehicle was exhibited at the back of the vehicle in accordance with Singapore’s road traffic rules.
This marks the first case in which LTA has charged an individual for using a foreign-registered vehicle with a false license plate to prevent unlawful activities from being detected. The sentence serves as a warning to those who attempt to cheat the system and highlights the importance of adhering to traffic regulations in Singapore.