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Source: The Straits Times
A TAXI driver, who got into a dispute with a passenger over his speeding, ended up biting off a piece of his customer’s ear.
Yesterday, Lau Kok Chiew was jailed four months by a district court for intentionally hurting Mr Vincent Chow Kok Weng after a trip in June 2008. He was also fined $1,000 for speeding.
Lau, 49, had pleaded guilty last month. The court heard that Mr Chow, his wife and two children boarded the taxi at Changi Airport’s Budget Terminal in the early hours of June 2 that year, after a flight from Vietnam.
During the journey, Lau accelerated his taxi to 140kmh in a 90kmh zone. But Mr Chow and his family members did not ask the cabby to slow down.
After arriving at their destination at Bayshore Park in East Coast, however, a quarrel between Mr Chow and Lau ensued. Mr Chow called the police and insisted that the cabby should wait for their arrival.
Lau refused and Mr Chow grabbed the keys from the ignition. The cabby then used his spare key but Mr Chow jumped into the backseat as the taxi pulled away. They continued arguing.
Along Tampines Avenue 10, Lau stopped his taxi and both men got out and fought. In the scuffle, Lau bit off a 3cm strip from the upper rim of Mr Chow’s left ear. Lau fled in his taxi but was tracked down by the police.
Asking the court to impose a jail sentence, Deputy Public Prosecutor Sanjiv Vaswani said Mr Chow had suffered permanent disfigurement from the attack.
DPP Vaswani argued that, in the same way that the courts take a stern view of commuters attacking public transport workers, taxi drivers who hurt passengers should also be punished severely. “The sword must cut both ways,” he said.
District Judge Toh Yung Cheong noted that the offence involved a rather serious injury.
Lau could have been jailed up to two years and fined up to $5,000 for hurting the passenger. For speeding, he could also have been jailed for up to three months.
