[ad_1]
SINGAPORE: Thinking that a pedestrian had insulted him while passing on his electric bike, a delivery man got out, removed his mask and tried to hit the man.
However, he failed and struck the man’s pregnant wife.
Gareth Tan Chin Wei, 32, was fined Singapore $ 4,000 on Wednesday (September 16) on a charge of causing harm by reckless act, failing to wear a mask properly, and failing to keep 1 meter away from others.
Two additional charges were taken into consideration.
The court heard that Tan began his day making deliveries in Serangoon on his licensed electric bike at 10 a.m. on April 24 this year.
Around midnight, he was riding his electric bike home on a sidewalk outside the NEX mall when he encountered the victims, a 34-year-old Romanian and his 35-year-old Venezuelan wife.
The man looked at Tan because he thought the way he was riding was dangerous, the court heard.
Looking back at the couple, Tan felt that the man was insulting him and got angry. He turned around, walked ahead of the couple, and parked his electric bike.
He then removed his mask and tried to hit the man, unable to maintain a distance of one meter, the prosecutor said.
The man dodged Tan’s blows, which hit the victim’s wife in the face. He suffered a scratch on his lips.
Tan’s colleague, who was nearby, rushed to stop the fight and a security guard at the nearby mall called the police.
Assistant District Attorney Eugene Teh asked for a fine of at least S $ 5,000. He noted that Tan’s breaches of COVID-19 regulations were part of “a unique outburst and were brief in nature.”
Tan also had his mask on at all times right before the fight, Teh said.
For a reckless act that endangered the personal safety of others, you could have been imprisoned for up to a year, fined up to S $ 5,000, or both.
For not wearing a mask properly, he could have been jailed for up to six months, fined up to S $ 10,000, or both. The penalties are the same for not maintaining a one meter distance from another person, according to COVID-19 laws.
