BlueSG staff grants himself free rentals, uses friend's account to drive 150 times without licence, gets jail

A customer service agent employed by car-sharing service BlueSG created an account on behalf of his friend, and used it to drive on 150 occasions without a valid driving licence.

Muhammad Fadhli Anuar, 24, who had access to BlueSG's internal database for his job, also adjusted the rental durations in the system on eight occasions so that he could rent vehicles for free.

This caused BlueSG to incur losses of S$654.28.

Fadhli was arrested on Jun. 5, 2024, after a human resource staff from BlueSG lodged a police report against him and another employee.

On Aug. 13, Fadhli was sentenced to seven months' and six weeks' jail and disqualified from holding or obtaining a driving licence for 36 months.

Used friend's account to drive 150 times without licence

Court documents seen by Mothership indicated that on or before Aug. 20, 2023, Fadhli met a friend and persuaded her to create a BlueSG account so she could rent vehicles.

With his friend's knowledge, Fadhli created a BlueSG account using her driving licence and NRIC, and also submitted her documents for authentication.

Fadhli then linked his own credit card to her BlueSG account, downloaded the app on his phone and started using her account to rent vehicles for his personal use.

Prosecutors said Fadhli's friend was not aware he was using her account to rent vehicles.

Between Aug. 20, 2023 and Jun. 1, 2024, Fadhli rented and drove vehicles on 150 occasions using his friend's account.

He himself did not hold any valid driving licence at the time.

On these occasions, Fadhli also drove without valid insurance cover, as without a valid driving licence, he would not have been covered under BlueSG's terms of use.

Gave himself free vehicle rentals 8 times

Between January and June 2024, Fadhli accessed BlueSG's internal database to effectively grant himself free vehicle rentals on eight occasions.

He did so by adjusting the rental durations of his rented vehicles in the system to zero minutes, which caused BlueSG to incur losses of S$654.28 in total.

This amount was deducted from Fadhli's salary once his offences were discovered.

On May 28, 2024, a human resource staff from BlueSG lodged a police report against two BlueSG staff members for making unauthorised adjustments to rental trips.

The staff were identified as Fadhli and Nabila Nurayla Putri Saifudin.

Arrested

On Jun. 4, 2024, Fadhli texted his friend and ask her to lie to the police that she had access to the BlueSG account.

He also asked her to tell them that she was unaware of the adjustments made in the BlueSG database to the rental durations of the vehicles rented using her account.

Instead, Fadhli's friend told the police the truth.

Fadhli was arrested the next day.

Fadhli pleaded guilty to four counts, including driving without a valid license and without insurance coverage, cheating BlueSG of payments for services and obstruction of justice.

Two other charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

Highly recalcitrant offender: Prosecutors

The prosecution asked for a sentence of eight to 10 months' jail, a S$1,000 fine and 36 to 48 months' disqualification from driving for Fadhli.

In their submissions, prosecutors argued that Fadhli was a "highly recalcitrant offender" as he drove 150 times without a valid licence.

Prosecutors also pointed out that Fadhli deceived BlueSG into allowing him to rent vehicles by using an account created with his friend's details, and abused their trust in him for his own benefit.

"He was a customer service agent who was entrusted with access to BlueSG's internal systems, to assist customers, and yet exploited it for his own gain," said prosecutors.

Fadhli had also convinced a colleague to use her system access to amend the rental durations, by lying that this would help his friend save on rental fees, prosecutors said.

Sentenced

Fadhli, who appeared in court without a lawyer, asked for leniency, CNA reported.

He said he had "complied with everything" while the case was before the courts.

He also asked for his sentence to be deferred as he had an elderly person at home to take care of.

Fadhli was sentenced to seven months' and six weeks' jail and barred from holding or obtaining a driving licence for 36 months.

He will start serving his jail term in September.

Top image from Shin Min Daily News & BlueSG/Facebook