Singapore: A drunk man boarded a taxi in Northpoint City and ate a burger while telling the taxi driver where he wanted to go.
The taxi driver couldn’t hear him, so he asked again. The man got excited, scolded the driver, threw the burger at him, and slapped him in the face.
Salem Mohammad Iskandar, 34, was sentenced to nine weeks in prison on Thursday (October 28) for this incident and an unrelated incident that occurred in a bar three years ago.
He pleaded guilty to three charges of intentional harm, deception and misconduct. Three other charges were taken into consideration when sentencing.
The court learned that Salem stopped a taxi at No. 2 Yishun Avenue at about 3:30 on March 14 this year. When he entered the taxi in front of the McDonald’s branch in North Point City, he was drunk.
After he boarded the taxi, the victim, a 65-year-old taxi driver, asked Salem where his destination was.
As Salem was eating a hamburger when he answered, the driver could not hear him clearly. He asked again, which excited Salem. He began to swear at the driver, then threw his hamburger at him and hit him in the chest.
Salem then grabbed the taxi driver by the collar and hit him near his eyes, causing the driver’s face to swell. A 23-year-old passerby heard what happened and went to check on the victim.
He called the police, and the police arrived soon. They observed that Salem had a strong smell of alcohol, behaved aggressively towards passers-by, ran into him many times, and asked the police to intervene.
He was arrested for failing to stop his actions.
Salem also pleaded guilty to an allegation of cheating at the Tanglin Road Titanium Bar in December 2018.
He took three groups of friends to the bar and encouraged them to deceive the bartender and convinced them that they planned to pay for alcohol, and they did not intend to do so.
They drank alcoholic beverages worth S$554 for free. Salem also broke the glasses on the floor, costing the bar S$200 to S$300 and driving away some customers.
Prosecutors demanded a sentence of 9 to 11 weeks in prison, calling the taxi incident a “classic case” of a passenger assaulting a taxi driver. He sought compensation of S$754 for the bar incident, and Salem was ordered to pay the bar.
The court learned that the taxi driver did not seek medical treatment and therefore did not bear any medical expenses.
In terms of mitigation, Salem asked for leniency. He said: “I regret everything I have done.”
