Part-time GrabFood rider jailed, fined for abusing Certis Cisco parking warden

SINGAPORE —Upset that a parking warden had issued him a fine, a part-time GrabFood driver punched him in the mouth, causing the Certis Cisco officer to lose one tooth and fracture another.

Muhammad Nasri Sahari, 31, was jailed one year and fined $500 on Wednesday (30 October) for kicking parking warden Andy Ngan Seow Ming’s motorcycle, verbally abusing the latter and voluntarily causing hurt to him.

One count of knocking the 56-year-old parking warden’s Electronic Handheld Terminal (EHT) to the ground was taken into consideration for Nasri’s sentencing.

According to Nasri’s lawyer Ashwin Ganapathy, the accused was a Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) regular who took up a side job as a GrabFood deliveryman as he was facing difficulties in paying off a housing loan.

Ganapathy noted that at the time of the incident, Nasri had been “delivering food for close to eight hours without any rest in between”.

Argument turned violent

Nasri’s offences took place at about 7.50pm on 13 January as Ngan was carrying out parking enforcement duties along Binjai Park.

With a delivery in the area to complete, Nasri took a risk and parked his motorcycle on a single yellow zig-zag line as he could not find a lot. At the time, he believed it would take less than a minute to complete his delivery.

Finding Nasri’s motorcycle illegally parked, Ngan approached the motorcycle to issue a summons. When Nasri spotted Ngan in his uniform, he called out to the latter. However, Ngan told Nasri that he had already begun keying details of the offence into his EHT.

Nasri then bumped his body against Ngan, who stretched out his arm to distance himself from Nasri. As the pair argued, Nasri continued to advance towards Ngan, who kept retreating.

At some point, Nasri slapped the EHT out of Ngan’s hand. After Ngan picked up the device, Nasri hurled verbal abuse at Ngan and slapped the device from the Cisco officer’s hands once again. The damage to the EHT amount to $156.

As Ngan picked up the device again, Nasri punched Ngan on his left wrist and on the mouth. This caused one of Ngan’s teeth to become loosened and another to be fractured. Ngan also suffered a cut on his lip and the loosened tooth was later extracted.

While Ngan called for the police, Nasri began riding away from the scene on his motorcycle. As Nasri passed Ngan’s duty vehicle, however, he stopped to kick it over. This led to Ngan’s vehicle sustaining $294.25 in damages.

Actions ‘out of character’: defence lawyer

Deputy Public Prosecutor Goh Yong Ngee sought 12 months’ jail and a fine for Nasri, whom he said had inflicted injuries typically considered serious. Ngan had required surgery to extract the tooth, said Goh.

Nasri had also displayed a brazen attitude and had the audacity to challenge, confront and assault a parking warden for performing his duties, said the prosecutor.

Ganapathy told the court that Nasri’s actions were “purely out of character”. He argued that the financial pressure Nasri was facing had led him to forfeit his rest days to earn extra income and to go for days without sleep.

On the day of the offence, Nasri had gone without sleep for a considerable period of time and had tried to reason with Ngan.

“Our client knew that a summons would require him to pay a composition fee and that frustrated our client greatly,” said Ganapathy. “What tipped our client over was the manner in which (Ngan) responded to his pleas. (Ngan) was rude to our client and he felt that (Ngan) was not empathetic to his pleas.”

While Nasri should not have parked illegally, a later delivery may have resulted in him being penalised. He did not think his motorcycle would cause a hindrance to other road users, said Ganapathy.

Nasri has since paid a voluntary compensation of $1,000 to Ngan, even though the latter’s medical fees were fully borne by his employer. Nasri has also paid in full for the repair costs for the damaged EHT and Ngan’s duty vehicle.

Ganapathy sought eight months’ jail for Nasri and a minimal fine.

For voluntarily causing hurt to a public servant in the discharge of his duty, Nasri could have been jailed up to seven years, fined, caned, or received any combination of the punishments.

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