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.”

Singapore: In order to earn cash, a man dialed the number left on the toilet door and became one of the people involved in a loan scam that defrauded DBS Bank to pay S$1.89 million.

Muhammad Fazly Laily, 28, was sentenced to six months in prison for participating in a scam on Thursday (October 28). He pleaded guilty to one count of obtaining property in his bank account, which amounted to fraudulent criminal proceeds.

The court was informed that Fazly was a freelance video technician at the time of the case and earned 600 to 700 SGD between March 2019 and April 2019.

Sometime in late March 2019, he went to a coffee shop near the Aljunied MRT station and then went to the toilet. On the back of one of the doors is a handwritten message that says “Cash is needed, please call this number”.

Fazli didn’t know who wrote it, or who owned the phone number engraved on the door, but he still dialed the number.

An unidentified man answered the phone, and Fazli asked him if he could get any amount of cash as a loan. When the man answered “yes”, Fazli asked if the loan was legal and asked where the man worked.

An unknown person told Fazli that if the loan was illegal, he would not be able to obtain a loan from the bank.

Fazli just wanted to take the money, so he didn’t check the person’s name, work unit information, and how this person helped him get the bank loan.

Fazly told the man on the phone that he wanted to apply for a bank loan of S$5,000 to S$10,000. He thought his salary was too low to qualify for a loan, but decided to try his luck.

The man on the other end of the phone asked Fazly for his ID photo, as well as his POSB ATM PIN code, credit bureau report, POSB account number, and SingPass login ID and password. Fazly gave him the information, and this person told Fazly that it would take one to two weeks to apply.

Fazly claimed that he lost the phone he used to call that person, and because he did not remember the number, he stopped calling him.

On April 11, 2019, Fazly checked his POSB savings account and found that he had received a loan of S$11,400 from DBS Bank as part of the DBS Cashline loan.

He realized that the loan amount was higher than what he had requested from an unknown person, and believed that the bank could not grant him this amount as a loan because his low monthly salary would make him ineligible.

He took out all the money and spent it on himself for food, massage, and sexual services.

DBS LODGES police report
In May 2019, a DBS bank fraud officer submitted a report to the police stating that there were more than 150 DBS Cashline loan applications submitted in the name of different people, with false pay slips and income documents.

Between March 2019 and May 2019, DBS Bank was defrauded to pay S$1.89 million for these fraudulent Cashline loan applications. One of the applications was submitted in the name of Fazly, and the Department of Commercial Affairs began investigating these crimes.

The investigation revealed that the DBS Bank Cashline loan application was submitted in the name of Fazly on April 8, 2019, with false pay slips.

The forged documents claim that Fazly earned a salary of S$4,660.50 from a company called Presico Engineering, and DBS Bank was tricked into paying a loan of S$11,400 to Fazly’s bank account.

Fazly did not voluntarily repay the loan. Approximately S$300 was recovered from his POSB account, but the remaining approximately S$11,000 has not yet been settled.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Stacey Anne Fernandez asked for six months in jail and pointed out that Fazly “personally enriched itself” with the full amount paid.

She said that he spent all the money in a short period of time-the loan was issued on April 11, 2019, and he was arrested on April 23, 2019.

Fazli is currently serving a sentence for drug crimes and asked whether his new sentence can be executed at the same time as the current sentence. The judge told him this was wrong because the verdict was for different crimes.

When his current term ends, he will begin his six months in prison.

Singapore: A woman who has adopted two three-month-old cats quickly feels “stressed” by the sounds they make and their “hyperactivity”, especially at night.

She claimed that she tried to get them to adopt but failed, so she put them in a pet cage and then put them on the grass with the door open.

Natalie Lau Sze Yuin, 40, was fined S$4,000 by the District Court on Wednesday (October 27) for a crime of abandoning an animal permanently without justification. A second similar charge was considered in sentencing.

Liu was also prohibited from owning any animals for 12 months.

The court learned that Lau adopted two kittens named Milky and Panda from Ms. Teo in early August 2020.

She left the kittens at home, but “feeled” because of the noise they made.

Lau claimed that she tried to adopt a cat through friends, family and animal welfare organizations, but failed.

On August 19, 2020, Lau placed two kittens in a pet cage and walked through her block in Sims Place. She put the cage on the nearby grass, opened the door and watched the kitten run home, and then walked home.

The court learned that she did not leave any food or water, and did not try to check the kittens afterwards.

Later that day, Ms. Teo saw a Facebook post about Milky and Panda that was discovered and suspected of being abandoned. She managed to find Panda, but did not find Milky.

Between August 19 and August 28, 2020, Lau lied to Ms. Teo that she was caring for two cats and claimed that she had vaccinated them. She also sent a video of a kitten to Ms. Teo.

According to court documents, Lau adopted two more cats shortly after giving up Milky and Panda. The two cats have been relocated.

In a statement after the hearing, NParks stated that becoming a pet owner is a life-long commitment and urged owners to be responsible for their animals and provide proper care.

“Remind pet owners to fulfill their pet care standards, ensure that their pets’ residences are safe, and provide appropriate food and water regularly,” said an NParks spokesperson.

“Those who cannot take care of pets should find a suitable home for them, or seek help from animal welfare organizations to relocate their pets.”

A first-time offender who abandons a pet can be sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, or a fine of up to S$10,000, or both.