Tuition centre charged for exam scam

Tuition centre charged for exam scam
The owner of a tuition centre in Singapore was fined $2,000 on Monday for lying to the police to protect an employee suspected of helping Chinese nationals gain entry into a secondary school here without sitting for an entrance exam.

Wong Mee Keow pleaded guilty to two charges of lying to the police in 2006. Another charge of obstructing the course of justice was considered during sentencing.

Wong's lies derailed an investigation for a decade – with no leads, police dropped the case in 2006.

Despite her efforts, her employee, Poh Yuan Nie, was arrested for another examination cheating scam that she had perpetrated with other accomplices in 2015 and 2016.

Among other charges, Poh is accused of conspiring with three others to cheat the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board into believing a student had sat for the GCE O-Level English Paper 1 without assistance.

She faces 38 charges for allegedly helping several students cheat in their O-Level examinations.

In 2006, an investigation was launched when the teachers of two Chinese students realised they had performed very poorly in exams despite having passed an entrance exam to get into the school.

When they were confronted, the students admitted that their agents had arranged for them to skip the exam and win a place in the school.

An investigation into the agents led the police to Wong’s Pivot Tuition Centre and Poh, Deputy Public Prosecutor Vadivalagan Shanmuga said.

When questioned by the police in August and November 2006, Wong pretended she had no idea who Poh was. The police then dropped the investigation against Poh.

Court documents did not provide further details on the investigations or how the alleged scams were carried out, reported Channel NewsAsia.


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