Woman gets jail for attacking Grab driver while drunk after New Year's Eve party
File photo of the State Courts in Singapore (Photo: Jeremy Long)
SINGAPORE: After drinking champagne at a New Year's Eve party, a woman took a Grab car home but grew agitated, thinking the driver was taking the wrong route.
When the Grab driver drove to a petrol kiosk to seek help, the woman followed him out of the car, attacking him multiple times.
Cheryl Hew Soo Fun, 41, was given 10 days' jail and a S$1,000 fine on Tuesday (Nov 3). She pleaded guilty to a charge each of voluntarily causing hurt and using criminal force.
A third charge of committing a rash act by pulling the driver's shirt and almost causing an accident was taken into consideration.
The court heard that Hew attended a New Year's Eve party at a friend's place at 7pm on Dec 31, 2017, drinking champagne and becoming inebriated.
At about 3.30am the next day, her friend booked a Grab car to take Hew home. On the way home, however, Hew became agitated, saying that the man was taking the wrong route.
She began shouting at him and behaved aggressively, so the driver decided to go to a petrol kiosk near Hew's home to seek help.
He stopped the car at a petrol station at Telok Blangah Road at about 3.50am, and walked towards the convenience store.
Hew got off the car and followed him. She then hit the driver multiple times on his upper back and arm, in acts that were captured in closed-circuit television camera footage.
She continued to follow the driver inside the store, pulling his shirt repeatedly. The driver later saw a doctor with redness over his shoulder, mild tenderness over his arm and mild pain in his upper back.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Edwin Soh sought two weeks' jail and a fine of S$1,500, saying that Hew caused hurt to a public transport worker in a sustained attack.
She was also intoxicated, an aggravating factor, at the time.
Defence lawyer Michael Moey said the driver had ignored his client's directions and made a mistake. Hew wanted to alight and walk home, but the driver "refused" and drove to the petrol station.
Mr Moey said the offence was out of character, and that his client was tired after travelling and tipsy from champagne. She offered the victim compensation but he refused to accept it, said the lawyer.
Hew is appealing against the sentence. For voluntarily causing hurt, she could have been jailed for up to two years, fined up to S$5,000, or both. For using criminal force, she could have been jailed for up to three months, fined up to S$1,500, or both.
