Parking officer Noorasimah Jasman skipped work and fooled her bosses into thinking she was doing her job by issuing more than S$1,000 worth of fake parking summonses. She claimed she was taking care of her grandmother while she skipped her patrols. On Monday, after being outed by one of the innocent vehicle owners she had issued a summons to, she was given a four weeks’ jail sentence.
Jasman, 33, was working for Ramky Cleantech Services, a company that handles several parking lots owned by the Housing and Development Board (HDB).
Jasman hoodwinked her bosses into believing that she was meeting her daily work quota. Between June 5 and July 1 of 2017, she entered the registration numbers of vehicles without season parking tickets into an electronic record system without knowing if they were even parked in her area of responsibility.
Jasman issued a total of 54 parking summonses to motorists who had parked at Bukit Panjang or Choa Chu Kang, even though none of them violated any parking rules.
Despite not flouting any rule, 16 out of the 54 vehicle owners paid the falsely imposed fines, which were mostly in sums of S$8 or S$30. The HDB, which received a total of S$304 from the vehicle owners, has since refunded the money to those wrongly fined.
Jasman would have gotten away with her scheme if not for one of the vehicle owners, Catherine Toh. Toh received a letter stating she had committed a parking offense past midnight on June 9 of last year.
Toh, who was traveling at the time of the supposed offense, decided to contest the matter. She also said that people with access to her keys did not use her car while she was away.
Toh reported the matter to HDB. While she was awaiting their response, she received yet another parking offense that she supposedly committed on June 18 of last year. She reported the second incident to HDB, who suggested she file a police report, which was acted upon.
Jasman, according to police investigations, was confirmed to have issued the summonses even though she was not physically present at the parking lots.
In court, Jasman said that she was unable to patrol her area of responsibility as she needed to take care of her ailing grandmother.
Jasman’s job was to check at least 60 vehicles per car park in order to meet her daily work quota. However, Deputy Public Prosecutor Alfie Lim said there was no quota on the number of summonses issued.
Ramky Cleantech Services never found out about her ploy. Firstly, no one else was assigned to her areas of responsibility. Secondly, she keyed in registration numbers of vehicles without season parking tickets using a work-issued Electronic Handheld Terminal scanner.
The parking offenses, which she took from old records she had kept from previous car park patrols, were then logged. Following procedure meant that Jasman would have to take a photo of the offending car and log it along with the summons, but she decided to use forgetfulness or oversight as an excuse if questioned about it in the future.
Jasman pleaded guilty to 18 charges under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act, with another 36 similar charges taken into consideration for sentencing.
HDB has since cancelled the other summonses Jasman had falsely issued. HDB also allowed 13 appeals by vehicle owners who were wrongly fined and cancelled the notices against them.
Jasman’s employers, Ramky, will also have to answer to HDB. Deputy Public Prosecutor Lim said they will most likely receive fines.
A four weeks’ jail sentence was given to Jasman for abusing the authority entrusted to her for “self-serving reasons, in order to cover up her absence from work”.
“There are several victims resulting from the accused’s offences,” Deputy Public Prosecutor Lim said. “Multiple vehicle owners, the company itself and HDB.”