Singapore

A Singaporean woman, who is also a former principal of a local tuition centre, has a red alert issued against her for arrest by Interpol for running an elaborate cheating racket. Poh Yuan Nie, 57, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2020 for helping students in their tertiary entrance examinations. She was ordered to surrender in September 2022 to serve her prison term, but she failed to show up. Now, it is believed that she may have fled Singapore, reports BBC.

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Subsequently in November, the police issued an arrest warrant for Poh, also known as Pony, and in the following month, they applied for the Interpol "red notice" seeking information on her whereabouts.

A red notice is issued seeking help from law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and arrest a person pending extradition or similar legal action.

According to local media reports, Poh's Zeus Education Centre was tasked with providing tuition to six students – aged 17 to 20 – to help them pass their exams and enter local vocational colleges known as polytechnics.

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She was paid 8,000 Singaporean dollars ($6,100) per student, as well as $1,000 Singaporean dollars in admission fees. However, if the students failed, then she was to refund the money.

During the exams, the students, all said to be Chinese nationals, arrived at different venues for their papers wearing skin-coloured in-ear headphones.

Poh and her accomplices taped the phones and Bluetooth devices to their bodies and skilfully concealed them under their clothes.

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Another co-accused and her girlfriend Tan Jia Yan, enrolled herself as a private candidate and used FaceTime on her phone to livestream the question papers back to the tuition centre.

Both then worked on the questions and called the students to read the answers to them.

Their plan was uncovered when an invigilator heard unusual electronic transmission sounds and voices coming from one of the students.

(With inputs from agencies)

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