SINGAPORE — Upset and angry that a taxi driver had misheard him, a drunk Norwegian tourist assaulted him. When a second taxi driver saw the commotion and tried to help, he was beaten up as well.
On Monday (Oct 16), Tore Robech, 43, was sentenced to six weeks’ jail, after he admitted to two counts of voluntarily causing hurt to the two cabbies. One count of mischief was taken into consideration during sentencing.
The court heard that sometime before 2.55am on July 20 this year, Robech, a real estate agent, was near Orchard Towers when he approached Mr Foo Chai Teng and asked to be taken to Nostalgia Hotel at Tiong Bahru.
Mr Foo, 51, misheard the location to be “Costa Rica” and told him that there was no such hotel.
Robech, who had not boarded the taxi yet, got upset and started punching Mr Foo through the open window.
He also used his leg to kick Mr Foo’s face. Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Goh Yi Ling told the court that Mr Foo grabbed hold of Robech’s leg to stop any further attack.
The assault was witnessed by a police officer patrolling the area at the time.
At the same time, taxi driver Jumaidig Mohamed Siti, 33, was in the area dropping a passenger off and saw what was happening.
He went up to check out the scene and Robech took out his shoe to fling it at Mr Jumaidig’s taxi. The impact scraped off paint at the front of the vehicle.
He then kicked Mr Jumaidig in the chest, causing him to fall back on his taxi.
Mr Jumaidig later suffered from chest pains and strains in the chest area. He had a history of lower-back pains, which was aggravated by the incident, and was put on medical leave for six days.
Mr Foo sustained injuries to his right shoulder, right wrist and right little finger, as well as swelling.
DPP Goh asked for an eight-week sentence, while Robech’s lawyer, Mr Chandra Mohan K Nair, urged the court to impose a fine “of a reasonable amount”.
Mr Chandra Mohan said that Robech, who had arrived in Singapore the day before, “truly apologises for causing this unfortunate incident and regrets very much what he has done”.
“The experience has brought him a great deal of sadness and shame,” the lawyer said, adding that Robech had “acted on impulse, and there was no degree of deliberation to cause injury”.
For voluntarily causing hurt, Robech could have been jailed up to two years and/or fined up to S$5,000 per charge. He will start serving his sentence on Tuesday
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/norwegian-tourist-who-punched-kicked-2-cabbies-jailed
