Amir Hussain
The Straits Times
Friday, Feb 26, 2016
A
23-year-old man, who took part in an armed robbery bid which left
the victim - a taxi driver - with cuts on his finger, lip and
forehead was on Friday (Feb 26) jailed for 11 months.
Tan
Jing Zi pleaded guilty to a charge of causing hurt with common
intention and to a count of theft.
A
district court heard that in May last year, Tan and two friends
hatched a plan to rob an elderly taxi driver as they were jobless
and desperate for money.
They
got into a Trans-Cab taxi in Tampines at about midnight on May 14
and asked the driver to go to the Chinese cemetery in Choa Chu Kang
Road.
After
they reached the cemetery, Tan and Eng Wan Fong, 22, ran out of the
taxi to act as look-outs, while Eng's boyfriend, Goh Tong Chien,
22, took out a chopper hidden in his bag and started slashing
cabbie Sazali Abdullah, 58, from behind.
Mr
Sazali used his right hand to fend off the attacks.
But
the sight of blood splattered all over the taxi scared the
assailant so much that he fled without taking any money. Goh threw
the chopper into a nearby drain.
Mr
Sazali drove out of the cemetery to the main road and called the
police. He was given 17 days of medical leave.
The
trio who took part in the attack were arrested at about 4am on the
same day.
Just a
week before the attack, they also stole from a Challenger shop at
Tampines Central.
On May
6, together with Tan's girlfriend Goh Hui Si, 18, the trio jointly
stole $120 worth of accessories for Goh's mobile phone.
The
alarm at the security gantry of the store was activated and rang
loudly when they left, but shop staff were not able to catch up
with them.
In
sentencing Tan, District Judge Low Wee Ping said "a stint of
incarceration would be necessary".
A
pre-sentencing report had found Tan to be unsuitable for
probation.
The
judge noted that Tan had been issued with several police warnings
since he was 17, for offences ranging from theft to
trespassing.
In
2008, he stole a bicycle. The next year he stole hair gel from a
shop. Around this time, he also joined a secret society.
At 16,
he started drinking alcohol with his friends. At 17, he had sex
with a minor.
In
2014, he threw a lighted cigarette into a rubbish bin at an
Institute of Technical Education campus and caused a fire. Last
year, he stole 15 items from a shop and went door-to-door
collecting money without a licence.
Tan
also has a daughter with a former girlfriend. He did not take
responsibility for the child because he had told her to abort the
baby.
For
his role in hurting Mr Sazali with a weapon likely to cause death,
Tan could have been jailed for seven years, fined and caned.
For
his role in the theft, he could have been jailed for seven years
and fined.
Under
the law, when a crime is committed jointly by several persons, each
person is liable for it as if it was committed by just one of them
.
Goh,
who pleaded guilty to three charges, including one of slashing the
cabby and one of punching his aunt in her eye while drunk, was
jailed for 22 months with three strokes of the cane in December
last year.
Eng, a
single mother, was sentenced to 12 months' jail last month for her
role in the attack on Mr Sazali.
