Teen biker involved in LTA officer’s fatal crash pleads guilty, apologizes to man’s family

SINGAPORE – A teenager involved in a motorcycle chase that killed a Land Transport Authority (LTA) officer in 2024 has pleaded guilty to multiple charges.

Through his lawyer, the criminal, who is now 19 years old, also apologized to the officer’s family and renounced the previous a statement he made saying he was “not to blame” for the officer’s death.

January 10 the teenager pleaded guilty to six charges, including dangerous riding on a motorcycle and drug use.

Seven other charges will be taken into consideration at sentencing January 23.

The teenager cannot be named because he was 17 when he used methamphetamine. Those under the age of 18 are protected by the Children and Youth Act.

On June 4, 2024, a teenager illegally rode a motorcycle on the Seletar Expressway in a dangerous manner to evade an LTA law enforcement officer Zdulfika Ahakasah, 26 years old, who ordered him to stop.

Mr. Zdulfika crashed on a motorcycle while chasing a teenager and later died in hospital.

Deputy Prosecutor Thaddeus Tan said the teenager did not stop in front of the LTA officer despite signals to do so because he knew he was wanted by the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) for previous drug-related offences.

He also did not have a license to drive a motorcycle that belonged to his cousin.

Footage of the incident taken from a body camera worn by Mr. Zdulfika while on duty was played in court.

It showed Mr Zdulfica ordering the teenager to stop on the side of the expressway, which he did. But after a few seconds, the teenager accelerated and suddenly crashed into the road of an oil tanker and drove over the chevron sign of the dividing road.

Chasing the teenager, Mr. Zdulfika crashed into a road divider and flew off the motorcycle.

During the playback of the video, the teenager, who has been in the pre-trial detention center since then June 2024stared blankly into space.

DPP Tan said that although the teenager knew that Mr Zdulfika had crashed his bike, he kept going and did not look back.

Prosecutors added that the teenager showed a clear lack of remorse, saying: “When he was first brought before the court, he was given the opportunity to publicly express his thoughts on what had happened. Instead, he took the opportunity to take the blame away from himself.”

Enabled June 6, 2024 when the teenager was first charged, he told the court: “I risked my life as much as he did. Death – I may be one of the factors that contributed to the death, but I cannot be blamed.’

To mitigate lawyer Fu Ho Choo said his client wanted to apologize for the statement.

“He would like to apologize to the family of the victim and he admits it was insensitive at the time. If there was a way, he would like to withdraw the statement,” Mr Fu said.

“He was only 18 at the time and he was very immature. He was not in such a state of mind to feel how wrong he was.’

DPP Tan said the teenager was persistent in offending, having committed 13 offenses over a 10-month period, including the offense of dangerous motorcycle riding.

He also gave his Singpass credentials to an unknown person on Telegram who promised him a loan of $300. The teenager did this because he needed the money to support himself but could not do legitimate work as he was wanted by the CNB.

Using Singpass information, an unknown person created a Standard Chartered Bank account in the teenager’s name and used it to receive and transfer at least US$299,867 in fraudulent proceeds from the 70-year-old pensioner. DPP Tan said the pensioner lost more than 850,000 USD generally to fraud.

The prosecutor’s office demanded a general punishment two years and 3½ to 5½ months in prison, six strokes of the cane and a five-year disqualification for the teenager, noting: “When the accused was first caught using drugs, he decided to run away. While on the run, he decided to commit another crime to feed himself, knowing that he could not resort to legitimate work to generate income.

“When he was caught by Officer Zdulfik, he decided to run away again and put Officer Zdulfik’s life in danger. Even after he was arrested and taken to court, he chose to argue that he could not be accused of being an officer Zdulfika death, showing a shocking lack of remorse.

“His actions were not (the result of) a one-time error (in) judgment, given that each of these events could have been a turning point for the accused to take responsibility and turn over a new leaf. Instead, he decided to commit new crimes.”

Mr Foo urged the court not to hand down a sentence that would be so devastating for his client, adding that the teenager, with the support of his mother and sister, has the potential to rehabilitate.

• Nadine Chua is a crime and court reporter for The Straits Times.

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