Parking officer skipped patrols and issued summons to innocent motorists -- to fill daily work quota

Parking officer Noorasimah Jasman, 33, skipped her patrols and issued summonses to motorists who had not broken any rules in June and July 2017, while working in the Choa Chu Kang area.

She was sentenced on Monday (Oct 15) to four weeks' jail after pleading guilty to 18 offences under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act.

According to The Straits Times, she claimed that she had to take care of her ailing grandmother.

She also tried to hoodwink her bosses by issuing summonses to motorists who had not broken any rules.

She had entered the registration numbers of vehicles without season parking tickets into an electronic record system, despite not knowing if they were even parked in the area she was meant to be patrolling, to make her bosses believe she was meeting her daily quota.

The issued summonses totalled slightly over $1,000 to more than 30 motorists before she was discovered by one of her victims.

The Straits Times understands that this is one of the first cases of its kind.

Thirty-six other charges for similar offences were considered during sentencing.

She worked for Ramky Cleantech Services, a company which offers enforcement services involving carpark gantries and parking spaces.

The company managed several Housing Board-owned parking spaces.

She would meet her team leader to collect a handheld scanner and a daily patrol accountability form at the start of her shift.

Noorasimah was supposed to record the number of vehicles checked and the number of summonses issued for each carpark she patrolled on the form.

She was required to meet her daily work quota, which consisted of her having to check at least 60 vehicles per carpark. 

Deputy Public Prosecutor Alfie Lim, however, said that there was no quota on the number of summonses issued.

The court heard, she had to return the scanner and form after her shifts.

She managed to keep records of the registration numbers of vehicles that did not have season parking ticket during her earlier patrols, DPP Lim said.

Ramkey officer have access to a system called the Integrated Car Parks System (ICPS), maintained by the Housing Development Board (HDB), which she keyed the information into.

"The accused claimed that her grandmother, whom she takes care of, was in ill health around May 2017. Because she needed to care for her, the accused did not patrol the carparks assigned to her," DPP Lim told District Judge Kessler Soh.

DPP Lim added: "She... did not know if the vehicles had even been parked there, let alone if they had been parked in violation of parking rules. She thus caused the vehicle owner to be issued with summons in respect of parking offences which they had not committed."

In June last year, Noorasimah was caught after a motorist alerted the police about letters she received from the HDB over purported parking offences, even though no one had driven her vehicle.

16 vehicle owners paid fines totalling $304 due to Noorasimah's scam.

Noorasimah was fired and the HDB has since cancelled the remaining false summonses and refunded the fines.

Defence counsel, Mr Chu Hua Yi, told the court that his client was deeply remorseful.

She was ordered to surrender at the State Courts on Oct 31 to begin serving her sentence and is now out on bail of $10,000.

Read the full story at The Straits Times.