Driver jailed for staging accidents to get cash settlements

SINGAPORE – To fund his lavish lifestyle, a man orchestrated traffic accidents between September 2019 and January 2024 to get private cash settlements from innocent drivers.

Danial Ali Liaqat Ali, 28, was involved in at least 73 road traffic accidents over four years. Most of them were staged.

On June 5, he was sentenced to 32 weeks’ jail and fined $6,000.

He will also be disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for 48 months after his release from prison.

Danial pleaded guilty to 12 charges, including cheating, dangerous driving and inconsiderate driving.

Another 25 charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

While driving, Danial would look for opportunities to engineer a near-collision or a collision with another vehicle.

He would drive dangerously close to them, deliberately failing to brake, or accelerating into them to cause a side-swipe collision.

Following each incident, Danial would approach the drivers and demand a private cash settlement of between $180 and $1,500 from the drivers.

Court documents did not state how much he received in total from the fake accidents.

On July 19, 2023, Danial was driving his car along the junction of Cantonment Road and Keppel Road.

He drove dangerously close behind another car before stopping at the road junction. He stopped his car in the right lane, and allowed the other car to filter into that lane.

As the driver was filtering into the right lane, Danial drove forward. No collision took place.

When both cars passed the junction of Cantonment Road and Keppel Road, Danial followed the car and requested that the driver, identified as Yusoff in court documents, stop along the road.

Danial claimed Yusoff’s car had collided into his and demanded a private cash settlement of $180 to pay for damages. Yusoff paid Danial the amount.

He used a similar modus operandi the next day on another driver along Sims Avenue, and asked the driver, Tay, for $300, which he paid.

On Nov 5, 2023, Danial was driving along Geylang Road when he tried to overtake a vehicle that was changing lanes.

He drove behind the car, and then attempted to overtake the driver. When the other driver slowed down, he collided into Danial’s side mirror.

Danial told the driver, Felix, that he had caused the accident, and demanded $300 from him, which Felix paid.

Besides the staged accidents, Danial had failed to report 29 traffic accidents to the police. These occurred between March 31, 2023, and Jan 2, 2024.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Hidayat Amir said Danial had also cheated his employer while working at bakery-cafe Cedele as an assistant outlet manager.

In October 2025, he created a Cedele membership account with his personal information. While working as a cashier, he would key in his own contact number into the system to accumulate points from customers’ purchases.

He accumulated 70,000 membership points between Oct 18 and Oct 27, 2025, and redeemed a $100 cash voucher from Cedele.

On Oct 31, 2025, he pocketed $100 cash from a customer.

Court documents did not state how these offences were discovered.

The DPP noted several aggravating factors for Danial’s road traffic offences, such as the sheer danger he posed to other vehicles.

The DPP said Danial deliberately placed himself, the other driver, and all other road users in danger by engineering collisions and near-collisions.

He said: “The accused was in essence turning the road into a private minefield. It was fortuitous that none of the drivers fell to any serious or fatal injury.”

In mitigation, Danial said he was remorseful for his actions.

Court documents did not say if he had made restitution to the drivers he cheated.

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