In 2020, a 17-year-old boy was caught by the police as he was driving a rented car whilst carrying two passengers.
Back then, the boy had learned how to drive by watching videos on YouTube, then gained access to a car rental service called Tribecar by using his father’s particulars and driving licence.
The accused, now 19, pleaded guilty on Monday (17 Jan) to two charges of cheating by personation and underage driving. There are two more charges that are being taken into consideration for his sentence, though the case has been adjourned to March.
Dangerous Driving
And if you thought that was the boy’s first rodeo, you would be wrong, because he had also driven on seven different occasions before he was caught.
We can put in an argument that his self-learned driving skills are better than the other underage boy who bumped into a parked car, but there are reasons why there is an age restriction for driving and why driving courses in both theory and practical are necessary before a driving licence is issued.
The main impetus here is your safety.
According to the court hearings, the boy had applied for an account online with the local car rental company Tribecar on 24 September 2020.
He had used his father’s details, including photographs of his father’s identity card and driving licence.
Tribecar has cautionary measures under their ‘Hirer Covenants’ that separate an experienced driver from a novice driver with less than two years of experience, with the latter category requiring “additional membership approval requirements and/or such additional terms and agreements as may be set out by Tribecar in this agreement”.
Tribecar does its due diligence to ensure that only drivers with valid licences are using their services by requiring photographic evidence upon registration, but slippery fishes like this young one do slip through the administrative nets.
Hence, the application went through, and the boy rented cars from the platform on eight instances between 24 Sep and 7 Oct that year without his father’s knowledge.
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Scrutiny into the Finer Details
On 7 Oct, the boy used a rental car to carry around two passengers who were unaware that the boy was only 17 and without a licence.
Well, if they knew, I don’t think they would get near the car even if they had a ten-foot pole, in the dead of night no less.
At around 3am, police officers from the Ang Mo Kio Neighbourhood Police Centre stopped the boy’s car at a roadblock on the Central Expressway slip road leading towards Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5.
When the boy was asked to show his driver’s licence, he confessed that he didn’t have one and that he was only 17 years old.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Andrew Chia stated the teenager admitted to the eight occasions of underage driving on his own accord. He also underscored the fact that his driving skills were learned from YouTube videos.
The judge called for a probation suitability report for the teenager and delayed the final sentencing to March.
For the crime of personation, the offender can be sentenced to a maximum of five years in jail and a fine. For underage driving, first-time offenders may be jailed for up to three months, fined up to $1,000, or both.
… Look, if the fine for underage driving is that high, you might as well invest in actual driving classes and pay for your theory and practical test fees, because it’s about the same price altogether.
Plus, you can even save yourself from any possible accidents and a trip to jail.
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Featured Image: Tribecar