22 April 2025 – Two 24-year-old men, Lu Deqiang and Yang Zhirong, were sentenced in court after admitting to staging a lie involving a car accident, with the intention to mislead a rental company and an insurance firm for compensation. The court heard that the men had concocted a false account after a car crash involving a rented vehicle, in an attempt to avoid liability and to claim compensation for injuries that never occurred.
The incident occurred on the evening of 15 November 2020, when Lu Deqiang had rented a vehicle from OZ Car Rentals. That evening, he met up with Yang Zhirong for dinner. After their meal, Lu allowed Yang to take over as the driver while he sat in the front passenger seat.
While they were driving along Upper Serangoon Road, Yang failed to notice that the car in front had slowed down. In an attempt to avoid a collision, he made a sharp left turn but still crashed into another vehicle. Since Yang was not an authorised driver under the rental agreement, both men grew worried that the rental company would refuse any insurance claims and potentially hold them personally liable.
To protect themselves, the two decided to lie. Lu would falsely claim he had been the one driving at the time of the accident. The very next day, both Lu and Yang informed the rental company of the incident, with Lu claiming he had been the driver. Based on this false information, the rental firm demanded that Lu pay the rental excess amount of $8,000.
Seeking to recover this amount, the two men then decided to file a fraudulent claim with an insurance company. They claimed that Yang was merely a passenger during the incident and had sustained injuries. Together, they submitted a claim of at least $10,260 in medical expenses, intending to use the payout to cover the cost owed to the rental firm.
To support the lie, Yang went as far as lodging a false police report and engaging a lawyer to pursue the insurance claim. However, the insurance company, upon receiving the lawyer’s letter, launched an investigation. They retrieved and reviewed footage from the vehicle’s dashcam, which clearly showed Yang driving at the time of the accident.
Once the deception was uncovered, the insurance company contacted Lu Deqiang and urged him to come clean. Lu complied and admitted to the falsehood. The insurance company lodged a police report in January 2022, and Yang did not receive any payout.
The court charged both men with cheating and providing false information to a public servant. They each faced one count of cheating and one count of furnishing false information. Both pleaded guilty to the charge of cheating, with the second charge considered during sentencing on 22 April 2025.
Before sentencing, the court ordered both men to undergo assessments to determine their suitability for probation. The assessment found that Yang Zhirong was unsuitable. Taking into account the assessment and his admission of guilt, the judge sentenced Yang to two weeks of imprisonment.
As for Lu Deqiang, he was found suitable for probation. He was placed under a one-year probation order and must serve 50 hours of community service. Additionally, he is required to remain indoors from 11pm to 6am daily. His father signed a $5,000 bond to guarantee Lu’s good behavior during the probation period.
This case serves as a cautionary tale of how a single poor decision, followed by a chain of lies, can spiral into criminal consequences, even for seemingly minor infractions involving road accidents.
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