SINGAPORE — When an immigrations officer tried to get Luu Nguyen Van Anh to show her passport at Woodlands Checkpoint, the Vietnamese reversed her car, stepped on the accelerator and fled.

She then broke through the drop-arm barrier and drove for some distance, before officers eventually arrested her.

The incident in June this year was not Van Anh’s first brush with the law here.

In February last year, she was jailed for a month and fined S$2,000 for overstaying in Singapore.

On Friday (Aug 16), the 24-year-old was jailed for 12 weeks and fined S$1,500 for her latest offences.

She had pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to enter Singapore without a valid pass lawfully issued to her, one count of mischief, and one count of committing a rash act that endangered the personal safety of the immigrations officer, Sergeant Lee Qi.

Five other similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that after serving her sentence last year for the overstaying offence, Van Anh remained in Singapore to be a prosecution witness for a harbouring case.

Before the case was over, the police referred her to the Institute of Mental Health for psychiatric assessment. She was diagnosed with brief psychotic disorder with underlying personality disorder, and was then repatriated to Ho Chi Minh City in May last year.

A year later, in early June, she flew to Johor Baru, Malaysia for a holiday.

After getting to know a Malaysian man there, identified only as Li Hongming, she accepted his offer to show her around the country.

Van Anh then claimed that she panicked when they arrived at an unknown location in his car, and she took over the wheel when Mr Li left the vehicle.

The car was registered in the name of another Malaysian man, Mr Chin Wan Kiong, who reported his missing vehicle to the Malaysian police on June 8. It was not stated if Van Anh knew this.

Having ditched Mr Li, she drove towards Singapore because she felt safe here, having been here before.

At about 2am on June 7, she arrived at Woodlands Checkpoint. 

However, she refused to wind down her windows and hand over her Vietnamese passport to Sergeant Lee, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority officer in the booth.

Sergeant Lee stepped out to try to get her to produce the travel document, but Van Anh suddenly reversed in the officer’s direction.

The officer managed to dodge the car and went to the driver’s side of the window. She asked to speak to Van Anh, who then sped off and crashed through the lowered barrier, damaging it to the tune of S$1,551.50.

The checkpoint alarm system was activated, leading to the whole area being locked down — and traffic came to a standstill.

Van Anh drove into another area within the checkpoint, before she was arrested.