Woman, 20, who allegedly evaded taxi fare and hit elderly cabby with wooden pan arrested
SINGAPORE — A 20-year-old Singaporean woman has been arrested after she allegedly assaulted a 71-year-old taxi driver with a wooden serving pan and evaded her taxi fare.
The police said in a statement on Thursday (16 July) that the incident is being investigated as a case of rash act causing hurt.
The man filed a police report on Wednesday, saying the assault took place after she had taken his taxi and alighted at Prinsep Street. The woman was also allegedly not wearing a mask and left after refusing to pay her taxi fare. She is believed to be involved in other cases of fare evasion.
The woman, who was arrested on Thursday afternoon along Kitchener Road, will also be investigated for breaching COVID-19 safe distancing measures.
The offence of rash act causing hurt carries a jail term of up to one year or a maximum fine of $5,000 or both. The offence of fare evasion is a fine of up to $1,000 for a first offence, and a maximum fine of up to $2,000 or a jail term of up to six months or both for a subsequent offence.
A Facebook user, Kelvin Chua, posted about the incident supposedly involving his father and a female passenger who was not wearing a mask. The woman allegedly boarded the taxi driven by Chua’s father at Ang Mo Kio Ave 10. During the journey to Prinsep Street, the woman asked to borrow the man’s mobile phone. Chua said his father lent the phone to the woman who then used it to make multiple calls.
A heated argument took place when the woman refused to return the phone to Chua’s father. When she alighted without paying for her fare, the man followed her. She allegedly took a “pizza board” from a restaurant and swung it at the man who managed to block the attack but the impact broke his watch.
The woman also later walked back to the taxi, grabbed the NETS machine inside it and threw it at his father, according to Chua. The machine was damaged as a result, he added.
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