Private hire vehicle (PHV) drivers

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Private-hire driver fined for verbally abusing, punching Thomson condo security guard​

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A view of the 368 Thomson condominium complex where Mohamed Salim Shahul Hameed verbally abused and assaulted a security officer on March 7, 2022.

BY

LOUISA TANG​

Published August 4, 2022

SINGAPORE — A judge on Thursday (Aug 4) warned a private-hire driver to “mellow out” and manage his emotions, before sentencing him to a S$3,000 fine for verbally abusing a condominium security officer.
Mohamed Salim Shahul Hameed, 58, had punched Mr Ruban Minindeh and flashed a vulgar gesture at him as well.
He pleaded guilty to one charge of harassing the 29-year-old Malaysian. Another charge of voluntarily causing hurt was taken into consideration for sentencing.
The incident happened on the evening of March 7 this year when Salim drove to the 368 Thomson condo complex to pick up a passenger, the court heard.
When he stopped his car at the entrance gantry and sounded his horn, Mr Ruban, who was stationed at the guardhouse beside the entrance, tried to speak to him from the guardhouse window.

Salim appeared not to have heard him, so Mr Ruban left the guardhouse to ask why he sounded the horn.
Salim grew upset and started cursing. Mr Ruban then stepped away and called the police for assistance.
Salim then parked his car at the roadside outside the condo complex, walked to the guardhouse, made a vulgar gesture at Mr Ruban and returned to his vehicle.
Mr Ruban then decided to take a video of the car's registration number because he did not note it down earlier.
When he started recording a video of the car, Salim shouted angrily at him and alighted once more to confront him.
He punched the security officer once on the face and shouted a mix of Hokkien and English vulgarities.

His actions were caught on the condo’s closed-circuit television cameras.
State Prosecuting Officer Lam Peng Choy said that Salim has 32 records of past offences, mostly for traffic violations and convictions under the Women’s Charter.
He was given probation in 1991 for assaulting a public servant to deter him from his duty.
District Judge Ong Luan Tze agreed with the prosecution that although his past records were mostly of a non-violent nature, it was not the first time that he had appeared in court for a violence-related offence.
She also told Salim that given his age, it was time for him to "mellow out”. She added that everyone goes through “difficult times” but that he should “manage his emotions”.
Salim told the court in his mitigation plea that he was remorseful and would never do such a thing again. He is still driving a private-hire vehicle for a living.

For using insulting words towards Mr Ruban, Salim could have been jailed for up to six months or fined up to S$5,000, or both.
The incident is part of a rise in reported cases of abuse against security officers.
The Union of Security Employees said last month that compared to nine reported cases last year, it has so far handled 21 cases this year through its customer service centre and mobile application. The app was launched to report abuse late last year.
Amendments to the Private Security Act, which provide for stiffer penalties for those who harass or insult security officers, took effect in May this year.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Private-hire driver gave friend $10k for third party to take blame for traffic offence​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent


NOV 1, 2022

SINGAPORE - A private-hire driver caught driving in a careless manner gave a friend $10,000 for a third party to take the fall for the offence, but the friend used his unsuspecting wife’s details instead when he could not find someone.
Candy Mcdonald, also known as Lim Siew Ping, eventually confessed to the police that she was the driver.
On Tuesday, the 51-year-old was sentenced to four days’ jail and a fine of $2,500 after she pleaded guilty to one count each of careless driving and obstructing the course of justice.
She was also disqualified from holding or obtaining all classes of driving licences for a period of 15 months.
In December 2019, Koh Chew Seng, Mcdonald’s friend, advised her to rent a car from Koheng Auto, a company he was managing. His wife was the sole proprietor.
In June 2020, Koh received a summon letter from the Traffic Police stating that a car from his workplace had been used to commit an offence of careless driving. The driver was to pay a composition amount of $200, with six demerit points given.
Koh contacted Mcdonald, who admitted that she was the driver.

It emerged that while ferrying passengers on May 16, 2020, she had driven against the flow of traffic to overtake another vehicle. The driver of the other vehicle had to apply the brakes to avoid a collision. Court documents did not disclose the location of the incident.
Mcdonald asked Koh for help as she was reluctant to receive demerit points.
She also did not want her driving licence to be revoked, which would impact her job, said Deputy Public Prosecutor R. Arvindren.

After some discussions, the pair agreed that Koh would find another driver willing to assume criminal liability on Mcdonald’s behalf. In exchange, she would give a reward of $10,000.
The DPP said: “During the following days, Koh started to find potential drivers willing to assume liability for the offence, but could not find any. After some time, Koh thought of pinning the liability on (his wife) instead, given that both (she and Mcdonald) were female drivers.”
Koh used a Corppass account belonging to Koheng Auto to submit his wife’s personal particulars to the Traffic Police, and later received a summon letter addressed to her.
He proceeded to pay the $200 composition amount from Koheng Auto’s bank account, which was registered under his wife’s name. The DPP said Koh did this without the knowledge of both Mcdonald and his wife.
In July 2020, Mcdonald started paying the $10,000 sum, transferring money to Koheng Auto’s bank account.
When Koh’s wife asked him about the additional money in the bank account, he told her not to “ask so much”.
Mcdonald came clean to the police on Jan 14, 2021. Court documents did not disclose what spurred her to do so.

On Tuesday, defence lawyer Wee Hong Shern from Ong & Co pleaded for his client to be given a day’s jail and a fine of $2,000.
He said: “She had come forward to confess... (to) a crime which would have gone undetected if not for her courage in facing the music.”
Mcdonald’s bail has been set at $15,000, and she is expected to surrender herself at the State Courts on Nov 18 to begin serving her jail term.
Koh, 46, was dealt with earlier and sentenced to a week’s jail.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Hillside condo management seeks damages from Gojek after car ends up in pool​

The driver of a white Honda Vezel drove into the wading pool of The Hillside condo on Tuesday night. PHOTO: THE HILLSIDE CONDOMINIUM

Sarah Koh

MAR 3, 2023


SINGAPORE – The management of an Upper Bukit Timah condominium is seeking damages from ride-hailing company Gojek after a car ended up in its swimming pool on Tuesday night.
A media statement from The Hillside condo on Friday said the management will be “seeking legal advice to claim for property damage that the car has caused”.
The statement added that the management will be writing to Gojek to verify if the driver works for the company, and to inform Gojek of the claim.
On Tuesday night, photos and videos of a white Honda Vezel partially submerged in the wading pool of the condominium circulated on social media.
According to the statement, the driver was a man and a passenger in the car was a woman who was visiting her family in the condo.
“Our closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage revealed that the driver hit some potted plants to the left of the pathway’s entrance, reversed, then moved forward again to hit some plants on the right side of the pathway,” it noted.
The driver reversed again and drove slowly onto the pathway, stopping at the entrance of a clubhouse.


A security guard told the driver to reverse his car but was ignored, said the statement.
CCTV footage showed the car moving forward, and turning right into the wading pool.


It was raining heavily, but all the lights at the clubhouse and pool were turned on.
After the car ended up in the pool, CCTV footage showed the driver leaving the vehicle. The passenger got out a while later.
The statement said: “When the driver was waiting at the clubhouse, the driver told security guard Ragu that he is a Gojek driver. Ragu then called the police, and the police arrived shortly after.”
Responding to queries from The Straits Times, a Gojek spokesman said that the company is looking into the case and is in the process of speaking to the passenger and driver to resolve the issue and take necessary action.
“The safety and well-being of our customers and driver-partners is our utmost concern, and we do not condone any behaviour that violates our policies,” said the spokesman.
“Our policies around safety and conduct are clearly emphasised during the driver-partner onboarding process.”

 

[blackmondy]

S$23,968 for a degree from University of Dublin .... cheaper than NUS and NTU leh.

How is that possible when Republic of Ireland charge Euro dollar ?

The most important question - got examinations or not ? Got people failed examinations before ? Or pay school fees liao sure PASS one ?

Many tiongs bought their degrees there. They live there and pay others to take exams on their behalf.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Jail for private hire driver who drove car into condo pool while ferrying elderly passenger​

Chean Tuck Heng had driven his vehicle into the swimming pool of The Hillside Condominium at around 9pm on Feb 28. PHOTOS: ST FILE, MONOLISA

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Sep 22, 2023

SINGAPORE - A private hire driver ferrying an elderly passenger failed to follow the instructions of two security officers and drove his car into a swimming pool at The Hillside condominium.
There were no pool users at the time, and the 79-year-old female passenger managed to alight via a rear passenger door unhurt when the front tyres of the car entered the water at the Upper Bukit Timah Road property.
Chean Tuck Heng, 67, was sentenced to two weeks’ jail on Friday after he pleaded guilty to committing a rash act and endangering life while operating a piece of machinery.
He was then a driver for ride-hailing platform Gojek when he picked up the woman in a white Honda Vezel near her granddaughter’s Fernvale Road home in Sengkang shortly before 8pm on Feb 28.
Chean was then instructed to drop the senior citizen off at a lobby at The Hillside.
He arrived at the entrance of the condominium at around 9pm, and a security officer told him to proceed to a junction and make a right turn.
Instead of complying, Chean drove past the junction, prompting his passenger to ask him why he did so.

He then replied that he “knew the way” before turning onto a tiled pedestrian walkway and running over some potted plants.
He continued to drive along the walkway and stopped his car when a second security officer approached the vehicle.
The officer told Chean to reverse the car onto a nearby road after telling him that vehicles were not allowed in the area and that the driver was also near a swimming pool.

The court heard that the pool was about 60m away from the start of the walkway.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Quek Lu Yi said: “However, the accused did not reverse the car as directed by the security officer. The accused saw that there were some tables and chairs on the tiled walkway and wanted to go around it to make a three-point turn.
“(The officer told him) that he was driving towards the swimming pool. The accused stated that it was rainwater and not the swimming pool.”
Chean continued driving the vehicle and only stopped when its front tyres entered the swimming pool that was 0.5m deep.
The police were alerted, and he was later charged in court in June.

The DPP said that the offender’s actions caused damage to items including the grass lawn and tiles around the pool.
The condominium’s management incurred repair costs of over $600.
On Friday, DPP Quek asked for Chean to be given between two and four weeks’ jail, stressing that he had acted with a high degree of rashness.
She also said that the potential for harm to human life arising from his offence was significant, adding: “Driving a vehicle into the pool would pose a clear risk to the life of the victim and other pool users...It was fortuitous that the pool was only 0.5m in depth and there were no...pool users.
“The accused drove along a pedestrian walkway for an extended distance, and could have collided with pedestrians who would not have expected the presence of a vehicle.”
For committing the offence, Chean could have been jailed for up to a year and fined up to $5,000.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Tada driver fined $3,000 for hurling racial insults at passenger​

Peh Boon Hua has also been permanently barred from the platform, said Tada. PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM JAN HOEDEN/FACEBOOK

Anjali Raguraman
Correspondent

DEC 19, 2023

SINGAPORE – A Singaporean private-hire car driver has been fined $3,000 for directing racist remarks towards a passenger in September, following a dispute over the drop-off location.
In the exchange, which the 46-year-old female passenger filmed and posted on social media, the driver shouted at her: “You are India(n), I’m a Chinese... You are the very worst kind.”
Peh Boon Hua, 54, was fined on Dec 13 after pleading guilty to one count of using insulting words causing distress under the Protection from Harassment Act.
According to court documents, the victim used the Tada app to book a car from Block 470 Pasir Ris Drive 6 at around 2pm on Sept 23.
She intended to set the drop-off location at Block 194 Pasir Ris Street 12, but due to a malfunction in the Tada app, she had to set the drop-off location at Block 194 Pasir Ris Street 11.
Peh was the assigned driver who came to pick up the victim and her nine-year-old daughter.
However, court documents said Peh was unable to locate Block 194 in Pasir Ris Street 11. An argument about the drop-off location ensued between Peh and the victim, before he made a U-turn and drove towards Pasir Ris Street 12.

As the argument continued, the victim started recording Peh on her phone. The accused got increasingly angry, and shouted: “You are India, India ah, I am Chinese okay, you are India, I am a Chinese, you are the very worst... worst... worst customer”.
The victim not only felt deeply offended but also unsafe because of his remarks and how loud he was.
She informed him that she is, in fact, Singaporean Eurasian and not Indian, and told him he was being racist.


Peh raised his voice and replied: “I know you India. I am Chinese, you try to be funny with me.”
The victim and her daughter alighted from the car at Block 194 Pasir Ris Street 12, retrieved their items from the boot of the car, and left. She made a police report the next day.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Sheldon Lim asked for a fine of between $3,000 and $4,000 for Peh.
“The overtly racial nature of the accused’s insults is unacceptable and cannot be disregarded,” he said.
“There is no place for such language or sentiment in Singapore, and any sentence imposed on the accused must sufficiently deter him and others from repeating this mistake in the future.”

DPP Lim noted that while Peh’s insulting language was targeted at the victim, her young daughter, who was also in the vehicle at the time, would have heard him loudly insulting her mother.
However, he also noted Peh had no prior criminal record and had demonstrated remorse by pleading guilty early.
Tada had suspended the driver in the wake of the videos first circulating on social media.
In response to queries from The Straits Times, Tada said Peh is permanently barred from working with the company as a driver.
“The driver’s remarks that insinuated racial differences are completely unacceptable within Tada’s community guidelines and ethos,” said the company.

 

[A Singaporean]

He should have studied at Uptron, the new MIT of the world.

 

[k1976]

He should have studied at Uptron, the new MIT of the world.

A reborn sinki all over again