After dropping off a passenger at a condominium along Segar Road, Comfort DelGro taxi driver Chen Wenyou realized that the man had left his mobile phone behind in the cab. So he did what any good person would do — drive back to the condo and return the misplaced belonging.
Instead of getting a nice thank you, however, the cabbie got beaten up.
Li Yaojie, 40, has since been slapped with a four-week jail sentence and a $5,000 fine on Monday, Lianhe Wanbao reported. He pleaded guilty to one count of voluntarily causing hurt to Chen and another count of using abusive language against a public servant during the altercation that took place at Blossom Residences on Oct 12 last year.
The man had mistakenly thought that Chen stole his mobile phone and turned violent, punching the cabbie and leaving him with injuries on his head and left wrist. The appalling moment was even caught on camera by Facebook user Getty Lai, showing Li yelling at the taxi driver, jostling him around and trying to pull him out of the vehicle. Sadly enough, the security guards stationed there were no help at all, even as a voice offscreen demanded that they intervene. In the end, the cabbie had to take the drastic measure of driving out of there with his car doors open.
The police were alerted at 2:10am that morning and arrested Li for threatening, abusing or insulting a public servant. In court, Li’s lawyer mentioned that the man had been facing pressure at work as a property agent and had consumed copious amounts of alcohol while entertaining clients prior to the incident.
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