SINGAPORE — Local authorities are seeking to apply for an Interpol red notice against the former principal of an education centre who was convicted of multiple counts of cheating in an O-level cheating scheme.
On Thursday, a public prosecutor asked a judge to vary the outstanding warrants to arrest for Poh Yuan Nie, to state specifically that they are for execution out of jurisdiction.
The former principal of the defunct Zeus Education Centre was earlier sentenced to four years’ jail over 27 counts of cheating in a case involving candidates in the 2016 O-level examinations.
A warrant of arrest was issued last month after Poh failed to turn up in court to begin her jail term.
When the judge asked if there was any specific country in mind, such as Malaysia or Brunei, Deputy Public Prosecutor Louis Ngia said no.
He noted that the purpose of the application was to apply for the notice with Interpol.
According to Interpol’s website, a Red Notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action. A Red Notice is not an international arrest warrant.
It is not known if Poh was deemed a flight risk or had her passport impounded by the Police.
Scheme assist six students to cheat in 0-level examinations
Poh was involved in the cheating case with three others.
Poh claimed trial along with her niece, Fiona Poh Min, who received three years’ jail, while Feng Riwen, who was given two years and four months’ jail.
Tan Jia Yan was the only one who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years’ jail in 2019.
The four carried out a scheme to assist six students in cheating on three examination papers in October 2016, by having devices strapped to their bodies and carefully concealed under layers of clothes.
Poh and her niece took the case to the Court of Appeal via criminal reference, to determine a question of law of public interest.
Their lawyers had argued the meaning of the word “dishonest” in the phrase “dishonest concealment of facts” has to be determined with reference to the definition of “dishonestly” under Section 24 of the Penal Code.
The provision states that a person is said to do an act dishonestly if he or she does it with the intention of causing wrongful gain or wrongful loss to another person.
While the prosecution argued that a plain or ordinary meaning of “dishonest” should be adopted instead.
The apex court agreed with the prosecution that the word “dishonest” must be interpreted as being used in the ordinary sense of the word rather than the meaning in Section 24 of the Penal Code.
The court also concluded that the word “dishonest” describes the mental state of the accused when committing a cheating offence.
It was said that Poh had signed contracts regarding the students stipulating that she would receive admission fees and deposits of about S$1,000 and S$8,000 respectively per student for taking them on.
However, if the students failed to pass the O-Level exams and failed to get places in Singapore polytechnics, Poh had to refund the money in full to Mr Dong Xin, a Chinese national whom she had signed the contracts with.
Poh paid Tan S$1,000 per student for providing them lodging, on top of a monthly salary of about S$3,000.
A few hours before each examination, the communication devices will be taped on the students and carefully concealed by their clothes.
Tan sat the examinations as a private candidate for the O-levels examination and used the FaceTime application on her phone to present a live stream of the question papers to the tuition centre.
Her accomplices then worked on the questions they received via the live stream before the students were called and had the answers read out to them.
The scheme went smoothly for three papers, but it was exposed on 24 October 2016 during the English Paper 1 exam at Tampines Secondary School when an alert invigilator heard unusual electronic transmissions and voices coming from one of the students.
After the examination, the student was taken to an office where he handed over the devices, including Bluetooth receivers and an earpiece.
The student came clean about the scheme, and the cheating attempt was flagged to Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB).
