Lorry driver charged with helping fugitive flee Singapore after he allegedly failed to deliver luxury goods
The lorry driver allegedly drove the vehicle hiding the couple on July 4, at about 7.25pm at Tuas Checkpoint's departure cargo section.
SINGAPORE — A lorry driver has been charged with helping a man to flee Singapore after he allegedly failed to deliver luxury goods to customers.
Mohamed Alias, 40, was on Friday (July 22) charged with helping a Singaporean man leave the country by allowing him to hide in the container compartment of a Malaysia-registered lorry with licence plate number JUH 7245.
Last Friday, the Malaysian driver was also charged with helping the man's wife, a Thai woman, leave Singapore in the same way.
The fugitive couple, 26-year-old Singaporean Pi Jiapeng and 27-year-old Thai national Pansuk Siriwipa, are accused of cheating victims who had made advance payments for luxury watches and bags.
Arrest warrants and Interpol red notices have been issued against them, after at least 180 police reports involving two companies, Tradenation and Tradeluxury, were made from June.
While some media reports said the total value of the undelivered goods is S$32 million, CNA understands that the scam victims who made police reports have not received goods worth at least S$20 million as of Sunday.
The lorry driver allegedly drove the vehicle hiding the couple on July 4, at about 7.25pm at Tuas Checkpoint's departure cargo section.
The penalty for this offence is a jail term of between six months and two years, and a fine of up to S$6,000.
Police previously said that Pi was arrested on June 27 for suspected involvement in cheating offences. His passport was impounded and he was released on bail on June 28, pending the completion of investigations.
Pansuk Siriwipia was also assisting the police with investigations and surrendered her passport to officers on Jun 30. Both subsequently became uncontactable.
The police have appealed to the public for information on the missing couple.
According to Interpol, Pi was born in Fujian, China, while Pansuk is from Roi Et, a province in central north-eastern Thailand. The agency added that Pansuk has a height of 1.64m. CNA
For more reports like this, visit cna.asia.
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