Melvyn Chua Tong Ling (above) was sentenced to 4 months jail for road rage on Wednesday, April 10, 2013. The sales manager, who was fetching his six-year-old son home, deliberately reversed his car into a stationary taxi. The next day, Chua lied in an insurance claim that the cab had rear-ended him in January last year. -- ST FILE PHOTO: LIM SIN THAI
By Khushwant Singh
A sales manager, who was fetching his six-year-old son home, deliberately reversed his car into a stationary taxi. The next day, Melvyn Chua Tong Ling, 31, lied in an insurance claim that the cab had rear-ended him in January last year.
He was jailed for four months on Wednesday. He had pleaded guilty on March 19 to driving rashly and endangering the safety of his son and cabby Ng Chor Foo, and to attempting to cheat First Capital Insurance of $11,463 with the false insurance claim. District Judge Eddy Tham said that it was very fortunate that Mr Ng, 55, had captured the incident on the camera in his taxi. The footage was screened in court at last month's hearing.
It showed that at 6.30pm on Jan 10 last year, Chua stopped his car along Ang Mo Kio Street 44 to pick up his son. As it was a narrow road, Mr Ng overtook the Chua's car by going into the right lane for oncoming traffic. Just then, Chua tried to move off but had to brake suddenly when he saw the taxi moving left in front of him. It then stopped some distance ahead to let a passenger disembark. Chua sped forward and swore at Mr Ng for cutting into his lane.
Wishing to avoid a confrontation, the cabby drove off. Chua pursued him and after overtaking the taxi, he jammed his brakes, forcing the cab to stop. Chua then reversed his vehicle into the front of the taxi. The next day, Chua put in his fraudulent claim at Ah Lim Motor Company in Ang Mo Kio.
-- Edited by ProTaxi on Monday 15th of April 2013 05:43:21 AM
A motorist who reversed his car into a taxi and claimed that the taxi hit him instead was jailed for reckless driving and insurance fraud.
In a road rage, an angry driver reversed his car into a stationary taxi. He then claimed that the taxi hit him, and tried to cheat the insurance company.
31-year old sales manager Melvyn Chua Tong Ling was sentenced to four months jail. His lie was unveiled as the whole incident was recorded by the in-car camera in the taxi.
The road rage row took place at 6:30pm on 10th January last year. While Chua stopped to pick up his son on Ang Mo Kio Street 44, taxi driver Ng Chor Foo overtook him on the narrow lane by going onto the lane meant for oncoming traffic. Chua had tried to move off when the taxi cut in front of him, sparking an argument.
Cabby Ng tried to avoid the rage row by driving away, but Chua chased and overtook him, and slammed on his brakes to force the cab to stop. He then back up and crashed into the taxi. When the Police arrived, Chua claimed that the taxi crashed into him, while cabbie Ng reported otherwise. They both went on to claim from their insurance.
Chua pleaded guilty to charges of reckless driving, endangering the safety of both his son and the taxi driver and fraud claims made on his insurer.
For driving rashly, the maximum penalty is a jail term of up to six months, up to $2,000 fine, or both. Attempting to cheat carries a jail term of up to five years and a fine of $5,000.
A sales manager, who was fetching his six-year-old son home, deliberately reversed his car into a stationary taxi. The next day, Melvyn Chua Tong Ling, 31, lied in an insurance claim that the cab had rear-ended him in January last year.
He was jailed for four months on Wednesday. He had pleaded guilty on March 19 to driving rashly and endangering the safety of his son and cabby Ng Chor Foo, and to attempting to cheat First Capital Insurance of $11,463 with the false insurance claim. District Judge Eddy Tham said that it was very fortunate that Mr Ng, 55, had captured the incident on the camera in his taxi. The footage was screened in court at last month's hearing.
It showed that at 6.30pm on Jan 10 last year, Chua stopped his car along Ang Mo Kio Street 44 to pick up his son. As it was a narrow road, Mr Ng overtook the Chua's car by going into the right lane for oncoming traffic. Just then, Chua tried to move off but had to brake suddenly when he saw the taxi moving left in front of him. It then stopped some distance ahead to let a passenger disembark. Chua sped forward and swore at Mr Ng for cutting into his lane.
Wishing to avoid a confrontation, the cabby drove off. Chua pursued him and after overtaking the taxi, he jammed his brakes, forcing the cab to stop. Chua then reversed his vehicle into the front of the taxi. The next day, Chua put in his fraudulent claim at Ah Lim Motor Company in Ang Mo Kio.
The video did not capture sound but Mr Ng alleged that the other driver kept shouting vulgarities at him and challenged him to get out of his cab.
Mr Ng claims he had signalled before overtaking the Toyota Wish which was obstructing the single carriage lane.
He said the other driver scolded him for frightening his young son who was in the car with him. Mr Ng said: "He claimed that I overtook him when he was moving off. But he was parked along the road and never signalled his intention to drive off."In the video, Mr Ng then winds up his window and begins driving off.
The video footage shows the other driver running back to his car, getting in and chasing after Mr Ng's cab for about 150m.
The car then swerves out, crosses the single white continuous line into the opposite lane, overtakes the cab and brakes suddenly.
Mr Ng stops his cab on time, but the car reverses suddenly and hits his cab's bonnet.
The driver gets out of his car, walks to the rear of Mr Ng's cab and starts taking pictures.
That same evening, Mr Ng made a police report about the incident and subsequently lodged a magistrate's complaint against Mr Chua. A police spokesman confirmed the report was made.
When contacted, Mr Chua said he had apologised to Mr Ng for scolding him with vulgarities.
When asked about the incident, he at first denied overtaking Mr Ng. He said he had approached Mr Ng initially because his five-year-old son had fallen when Mr Ng overtook his moving car.
He admitted his son, who was in the second row passenger seat in his car, was not using the seat belt.
He said he had parked his car by the road to pick up his son but was driving off when Mr Ng overtook him.
The car belongs to Mr Chua's wife. Mr Chua said he had sent it to the workshop and agreed to make a third-party claim (where a motorist claims against another person's insurance policy, rather than his own) but was unaware that the car insurance company had sent a lawyer's letter demanding payment from Mr Ng.
Said Mr Chua: "I don't know anything about it. I haven't received the bill myself."
Mr Chua said he is now prepared to pay the repair costs of his wife's car himself.
When told Mr Ng had video footage of the incident, Mr Chua's reply was: "How did he film my car when he was driving?"
Asked if he had reversed and hit Mr Ng's cab, he said: "How could I reverse and hit his car when my child was in my car?"
When the events shown in the video footage was described to Mr Chua, he later admitted that he had overtaken Mr Ng's cab, but claimed he did so only because Mr Ng had braked suddenly when his cab was in front.
Said Mr Chua: "He called me a road bully but did I beat him up? We are all human beings. Would I get so agitated if he didn't do anything?"
Mr Chua then claimed he had braked suddenly because there was a cyclist in front of him, and that he reversed his car because his vehicle was too close to the cyclist.
