JILTED by his girlfriend of seven years, Alex Wong Kia Soon, 30,
tried to set fire to her father's provision shop in Bukit Batok
Street 33. He brought along two bottles of kerosene, lit the
homemade cloth fuses and threw them down onto the roof of the shop
at 11.40pm on Oct 4. Luckily, the fire went out after a few seconds
and damage was estimated to be less than $50.
On Thursday, Wong was jailed for a day and fined $5,000 by a
community court. He had pleaded guilty last month to one count of
committing mischief by fire. Two other similar offences - committed
on Sept 22 and Oct 3 last year - were taken into consideration for
the purposes of sentencing.
The court ordered for a probation report was ordered but on
Thursday, District Judge Ng Peng Hong heard that probation was not
recommended as Wong, who suffers from a major depressive disorder,
does not want to undergo psychiatric treatment or take his
medicine.
He had complained to the probation officer that his medication
made him 'feel weird'. Wong also claimed he was much better now but
Judge Ng advised him that since psychiatrists deemed it necessary
for him to continue treatment, he should listen to the
professionals. Added the judge: 'If there are side-effects, tell
the doctors and they will prescribe other drugs.'
His lawyer VG Sambandan had informed the court that at the time
of the offences, Wong had lost his job as an IT engineer and his
pet cat of 15 years had also died. All these misfortunes coupled
together had a detrimental effect on his client's mental state, the
lawyer said.
-- ST