Man Who Took the Rap for Female Driver at Pasir Ris Fined $5,000

It’s easy to picture men who have a strong sense of responsibility for a girl, just like one of those K-drama male leads you see covering up for the girl who crash lands in North Korea.

Sounds too sweet to be true, right?

The good news is that there are actually men who would do that for you.

The not so good news, however, is that sadly, this is the real world – not everything you do with good intentions will be seen as such, especially in the eyes of the law.

Man Takes Blame Instead Of Female Driver

One fateful day, upon seeing his female friend sobbing in the car after she’d just crashed it over a road divider, Ong Chen Yang’s protective instincts jumped out.

So he decided to say he was the one who drove them into this mess instead.

Who says chivalry is dead?

Unfortunately for 38-year-old Ong, this act of heroism only left him with a $5,000 fine following him pleading guilty in court on 7 June, Monday.

He was charged with providing false information to a public servant.

Confessing to his lies, he said that he wanted to be “a gentleman” to help his crying friend.

Midnight Drive Gone Wrong

Just who is this friend that got Ong willing to help her out in such a manner?

Yu Jia, a Chinese national and Singaporean permanent resident, made Ong’s acquaintance at a pub on 11 March last year.

The two then left together at around 1am and hit the road in Yu’s car, with Ong in the passenger seat.

Yes, they got into such an incident on the very day they met.

While talking to Ong in the car, Yu became distracted as they approached Pasir Ris Street 71 and promptly drove over the road’s centre divider, causing the car to get stuck in the middle of it.

Seeing as they couldn’t drive out of it, the pair called a towing service to help them.

A police report was also made by a passer-by who saw the car, telling them that the car was stuck and that the pair was not injured.

At about 2am, the police showed up at the site and stopped Yu and Ong, who were walking away from the car that was currently being towed.

Insisted He Was The Driver

It’s quite rare to find someone who would protect you to this extent only after a few hours of knowing each other, but Ong apparently was one such person.

“Sorry, sorry, I am the driver, I am the driver,” Ong emphasised to the officer.

He continued to hold his stand that he was the one behind the wheel even as questioning went on.

Ong testified that he was talking to Yu and became distracted, resulting in him not knowing the car had swerved near the centre divider.

He also told them that he had drunk alcohol prior to driving the car, yet failed a breathalyser test.

Ong was thus arrested on suspicions of drunk driving as they could not confirm it.

At this point, Yu was nowhere to be found as she had already left.

Investigations carried on at the Traffic Police headquarters in Ubi where Ong was taken to, with his claims remaining the same as he repeated it to an investigation officer.

Eventually, he wasn’t able to upkeep this facade and confessed that he had lied.

The aspiring gentleman “decided to take the rap when he saw that the co-accused was crying,” Deputy Public Prosecutor Sarah Siaw said.

As of now, Yu has not been acquitted by the law yet.

Providing false information to a public servant could possibly land one in jail, or in Ong’s case be fined, or worse, receive both penalties.

Featured Image: Google Maps