Last week it was a 17 year old who punched a bus DRIVER, now its
supposedly the reverse. 
THEY claimed the taxi driver attacked and punched one of them when
they couldn't pay up.
They said he shouted vulgarities at them, challenged them to a
fight, and demanded they pay double the fare.
He had even snatched two of their handphones away.
The four teens made a police report against the Comfort
driver.
But the taxi driver has a very different version of what
happened.
According to Mr Tay Kwee Chee, 47, the four boys had refused to pay
for the ride, which cost $23.90.
The boys had boarded his taxi at Downtown East resort in Pasir Ris
around 3.30pm last Saturday.
But once they got to their destination at Jurong West, they got out
and ran off without paying.
And no, he didn't snatch the boys' handphones. According to him, he
had only one, and it was offered to him by one of the boys as
collateral, while they supposedly went to get money to pay him.
(See page 8 for cabby's full account.)
But the teens are disputing this.
They said Mr Tay refused to wait for them to raise money after they
found they had only $20 with them, a little short of the $23.90
fare on the meter.
And yes, he punched one of them in the stomach, they
insisted.
According to the teens, they had made calls and managed to find
friends nearby who agreed to meet them with the money.
But instead of waiting, the taxi driver accused the boys of
cheating him, and started scolding them, using abusive language in
Hokkien.
The teens said they had decided to go to the home of one of them
after an outing at Downtown East's Wild Wild Wet water theme
park.
We are not revealing their real names because the police are now
investigating the case.
One of the four, David, 14, said: 'We asked the taxi uncle how much
we needed to pay to go to Jurong West. He said the fare would be
not more than $20. So we thought we'd have enough money for the
ride.'
RAISE MONEY
(From far left) John, Charles, David and Paul. -- Picture: MOHD
ISHAK
They got to Jurong West Street 24 at 4.24pm, only to realise they
needed $3.90 more for the fare.
John, 13, recalled: 'David and I got out of the taxi to call our
friends who live in Jurong to raise money.
'We told the taxi driver our friends have agreed to meet us at
Block 272B to give us the money.
'He only had to wait about 10minutes before they arrived because
they live very close to where we were.' Paul and Charles stayed in
the cab.
A few minutes later, the taxi driver turned nasty although he had
said earlier he didn't mind waiting.
Paul, 13, claimed he even fell asleep in the front passenger seat
and woke up when he felt someone pulling at his shirt.
He said: 'I didn't know what was going on. The taxi driver pulled
my shirt and he started shouting Hokkien vulgarities.'
Scared, Paul got out of the taxi and ran. David said: 'The taxi
driver shouted at us, saying we shouldn't try to play the fool if
we don't have enough money.'
Paul and David said the taxi driver then ran after them, to the
void deck of Block 272B and into one of the lifts.
John ran after the cabby, trying to explain that his friends would
arrive soon with the money.
'The taxi driver challenged us to a fight. He said he was a boxer
and could take on all of us,' David said.
Paul claimed the taxi driver punched him in the stomach while they
were in the lift.
He said: 'I felt a sharp pain in my stomach. I was afraid he would
continue to beat us up.'
David and John claimed the driver then snatched their
handphones.
David said: 'He wanted us to pay $50 instead of $24. Of course he
knew we didn't have the money.'
His Samsung phone cost over $100 while John's Sony Ericsson cost
$280.
After that, John said he was told by the driver to borrow money
from residents. But while John was on the second floor, Paul saw
from the stairwell that the taxi driver walked back to the taxi and
drove away.
Charles, 14, who was not in the lift, then called 999 on his
handphone.
Police spokesman Liu Xiangling said they received a report of a man
taking away two handphones from the boys.
Paul didn't have any visible injuries when he spoke to The New
Paper.
He said: 'It felt painful then. But I was okay the next day and so
I didn't see a doctor.'
Taken from the official newpaper website.
