Go DB: 5 NSFs took new cars for Joyride Drift @ Wharf
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5 SAF men took new cars for joyride at wharf09 Mar 2011SOURCE: The New Paper
THEY were stationed at Sembawang Wharves for an operation that night.
But the five SAF servicemen treated the place as their private racing circuit.
They took several new Kia Koup cars, which were parked there waiting to be shipped out, for a joy ride – not once, but three times.
As they raced each other, two of the cars collided when one tried to overtake the other. Later, a front tyre of a third car got stuck in a drain after a mishap.
The men’s antics were caught on security cameras. A worker at the wharves also saw what they did and reported them.
The repairs to the cars cost about $13,100. Three of the men did not have valid driving licences.
After a court martial, all five men were sentenced last Dec 3 to between six weeks’ and 15 months’ detention by the General Court Martial (GCM) Panel at the Subordinate Military Court.
They pleaded guilty to several charges, including theft of a motor vehicle, driving without a licence, driving without third-party insurance and leaving a place of duty as a sentry without having been regularly relieved.
Three of the men, Third Sergeant Chiam Toon Chong, 24, Lance Corporal Tan Fu Ning, 21, and Lance Cpl Tan Yong Chen, 21, are appealing against their sentences. They had been sentenced to detention of 15 months, nine months and 10 months, respectively.
Their appeals will be heard in the Military Court of Appeal at the High Court tomorrow.
Since 2007, SAF troops have been deployed at key installations, such as Sembawang Wharves, Changi Airport and Jurong Island, as these are considered high-profile terrorist targets. Besides combat training, these soldiers will have been trained in areas such as assessing threats and analysing suspicious behaviour.
The five cars were among those shipped into the wharves from Korea and assigned parking spaces in a car yard by the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) between March 11 and April 10 last year.
The five servicemen, all of whom are full-time national servicemen except for 3rd Sgt Chiam, who was a regular at that time, were stationed at the wharves for an operation on Aug 6 last year.
Two of them, Private Tan Yuan Tat, 21, and Lance Cpl Tan Yong Cheng, were on sentry duty at a berth near the car yard from 7.30pm to midnight.
Half an hour into their shift, 3rd Sgt Chiam, Lance Cpl Tan Fu Ning and Lance Cpl Tan Choon Siang, 21, approached them.
During their conversation, 3rd Sgt Chiam proposed that they “play with the new Kia cars together”. The other four agreed.
Pte Tan and Lance Cpl Tan Yong Cheng then left their post with the others although they had not been regularly relieved of their duty.
Around 8.30pm, the five arrived at the car yard. Lance Cpl Tan Fu Ning and Lance Cpl Tan Yong Cheng got into a silver car and the others into a blue car. The cars were not locked.
When they found the car keys, 3rd Sgt Chiam taught Pte Tan and Lance Cpl Tan Choon Siang how to start the engine.
Lance Cpl Tan Fu Ning drove off in a red car, with Lance Cpl Tan Yong Cheng as passenger. They were followed by Pte Tan in the silver car – with Lance Cpl Tan Choon Siang as passenger – and 3rd Sgt Chiam in a blue car.
During the 15-minute joyride, Pte Tan tried to overtake Lance Cpl Tan Fu Ning but their cars collided.
Conceal damage
To conceal the damage, they parked the cars in an obscure area of the berth near the car yard.
Later, Pte Tan and the three lance corporals moved two blue cars in front of the red and silver cars to hide the damage from plain view.
At 10pm, after 3rd Sgt Chiam and Lance Cpl Tan Choon Siang returned to the sleeping quarters, the other three men decided to go for another joyride.
This time, Lance Cpl Tan Yong Cheng and Pte Tan drove the two blue cars that had been used to hide the damaged cars. Lance Cpl Tan Fu Ning rode with Lance Cpl Tan Yong Cheng as he had offered to teach the latter how to drive.
For the next 15 minutes, the three men zipped around the wharves, taking the route they had used the first time.
When they returned to the car yard, Lance Cpl Tan Fu Ning took over the wheel as Lance Cpl Tan Yong Cheng was not confident about parking the car.
Barely 15 minutes later, the trio went for a third spin. Lance Cpl Tan Fu Ning and Lance Cpl Tan Yong Cheng each took the blue cars they had driven earlier while Pte Tan took a dark-coloured car.
They drove for about 15 minutes. Then, while making a turn, Lance Cpl Tan Yong Cheng drove his car into a drain, causing a front tyre to be stuck. Pte Tan managed to free the car and drove it to the car yard.
But their joyrides didn’t go unnoticed. An employee at the wharves saw them and reported the matter to the auxiliary police, who inspected the cars.
The next day, the supervisor in charge of the five cars noticed that they were damaged and not properly aligned. He raised the matter with PSA.
During a probe by SAF’s Special Investigation Branch, two lance corporals said they had seen the five men driving the cars and they had been told by 3rd Sgt Chiam not to report the matter.
Two other lance corporals who were on sentry duty in the area that night said 3rd Sgt Chiam had told them to say that they had been on duty elsewhere if they were questioned.
They added that they felt pressured to listen to the sergeant as he was their superior and feared that he would make their lives difficult if they told the truth.
In passing sentence, the three-person GCM panel noted that three of the servicemen “took turns behind the wheel for joyrides and races, treating the Sembawang Wharves as their private race ‘circuit’ even though none of them were licensed to drive”.
Unsurprisingly, the group ended up damaging the cars during their “brazen escapade”.
The panel viewed 3rd Sgt Chiam as the ringleader and deserved the heaviest sentence of 15 months’ detention. Pte Tan received the second heaviest sentence of 12 months’ detention.
This was also due to their involvement in another incident at Maju Camp on Oct 28 last year for which they were convicted on other charges, including riding without a valid motorcycle licence and theft of a motorcycle.
Mr Gerard Ee, former president of the Automobile Association of Singapore, said brand new cars shipped out from factories usually have some petrol in them.
He said: “They would have some fuel because they have to be driven from the factories to the ship and there’s a whole team of drivers to drive these cars from the ship.”Linkie: Click here
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Numbskulls.
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Haha... Protect the cars from people stealing it. But the guards themselves steal it to joyride.
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Who watches the watchmen?
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Their rank will be stripe to pte when in jail.
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disgraced themselves and the country
mind you, those cars are there for transhipment. Wat would ppl think of e damages?
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In the moment of folly, they committed the crime. They paid for it.
A good lesson for them and for those in the army.
Dont play play when you are serving the ns.
Even not in the ns, not your property, dont touch.
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They still went to appeal?
Increase their punishment
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Basically, their charges were:
1. Multiple vehicle theft
2. Driving without licence
3. Driving without insurance
4. Dereliction of duty
What made it all the more worse was that it was done out in public, they were witnessed by civillians, and it involved non-SAF equipment.
At least if this was all done in camp, and they had crashed a couple of SAF Land Rovers or something, their CO could just pack them to DB for a couple of months and write off the repairs or something. But out in public? Their backsides would certainly be buttered good.
All in all, 12 to 15 months of DB for the top two ringleaders is already very light.
If they want to tempt fate by appealing, then that's their choice. If they're already stupid enough to clown about like this, then I guess they can be stupid enough to risk having their sentences increased by appealing.
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Serve tham right.
Once bit, still dont know the shy.
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I'm sure we all did our own version of stupid stuff while in NS....but this one has to be right up there! LOL. This one already flouts rule #1: Do anything but don't get caught. How not to get caught when they were at a public wharf?!?!
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yeah rock star is right. do but dun get caught. do it smart. that 3sg suay. his man make him jialat. i also did alot but didnt get caught :)
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already damn stupid to do this...
and even stupider to appeal against the sentence...
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the 3SG is a regular somemore...sure got contract terminated then he had to pay back SAF somemore. Then come out of DB still need to complete his NS liability. What an idiot.
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How come the thread now changed to new imported cars?
Those are cars here for transhipment!
As like containers, more than 80% of the cars in PSA are for transhipment, not Singapore market.
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Originally posted by sbst275:
How come the thread now changed to new imported cars?
Those are cars here for transhipment!
As like containers, more than 80% of the cars in PSA are for transhipment, not Singapore market.
Don't ask me.
That would be the job of one of my co-moderators who blatantly disregards my protests regarding this matter.
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There isn't a single mention of the word 'drift' in the article. eac's comprehension skills (or lack thereof) would do the Daily Mail proud.
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no wonder they said
人言��
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Nobody notice that many port workers don't have licence?
The guys who load and unload the cars from the ships at 120km/h. They are foreign workers. Only reason no accident, is they know how to drive since 8 years old in their own countries.
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Originally posted by alize:
Nobody notice that many port workers don't have licence?
The guys who load and unload the cars from the ships at 120km/h. They are foreign workers. Only reason no accident, is they know how to drive since 8 years old in their own countries.
They know how to drive and get it done fastDo you know how tight is the parking inside the Ro-ro vessels?
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Originally posted by alize:
Nobody notice that many port workers don't have licence?
The guys who load and unload the cars from the ships at 120km/h. They are foreign workers. Only reason no accident, is they know how to drive since 8 years old in their own countries.
This just like the power boat license, in the whole wide world we are the only country who need a license to power a boat.
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eh
other places you've lots of sea channels to use
here is the world's 2nd busiest port and biggest bunkering port. Not a place to trigger happy
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doing guard duty, si beh sian..... nothing to do, got free car to drive, heck care si mi model lah, mai tu liao.......
Nowadays young ppl never tink, song first...... tio tai chi liao kar lai kong.......
Who will pay for the damage huh...........? -
In army I learnt by right cannot, by left can, dont get caught. Do it in a smart way.
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Originally posted by Junyang700:
Haha... Protect the cars from people stealing it. But the guards themselves steal it to joyride.
they are not there to protect the cars... they are to protect something else....
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Dont play play with the authorities especially in the uniform.
Black mark, I wonder how they ROD, whether they can landed themselve a job or not.