Reckless driver fakes identity, tricks companies into hiring him

Singapore—A man has pleaded guilty to multiple charges of cheating for faking his identity in order to get a job as a driver. What’s worse is that the man committed the crimes while he was banned from driving for four years.

According to an initial report by Today, the fraud started when Muhammad Ashiq Mohd Jamaluddin, a 25-year-old delivery attendant, borrowed his ex-coworker’s license and ID. The coworker, Mr Sateesh Marimuthu, lent the copies of the documents because he thought Ashiq would apply for a job on his behalf.

Upon getting a hold of the documents, Ashiq applied for a job and got accepted as a delivery driver for Redmart’s subcontractor, Falcon Trans Agency in December 2017.

Ashiq earned S$5,141 during his 1.5 month at the company. Not content, he applied for another job using his coworker’s documents and managed to get hired as a driver for Sally Express Company in March 2018.

In order to avoid submitting the original documents to the company, Ashiq filed a police report saying the documents had been lost.

Ashiq had previously been banned from driving because of his recklessness. His new job did not seem to change his bad driving behaviour, as CCTV and in-car footage showed him speeding and mounting centre dividers.

He had also stolen his brother’s three credit cards and used them for 31 unauthorised transactions amounting to S$5,774.

During the hearing last Friday (July 5), Ashiq pleaded guilty to 16 charges: nine counts of cheating, four counts of cheating by personation, two counts of driving while under disqualification, and one count of theft in dwelling. He was also given 40 additional charges related to cheating and reckless driving./TISG