Elderly Ferrari driver admits to trapping worker who pruned her raintree

SINGAPORE — Angered by her neighbour who hired contractors to prune an overgrown tree in her residence, an elderly woman trapped one of the workers in a lorry crane for nearly an hour.

On Tuesday (Aug 14), 73-year-old Shi Ka Yee, the Ferrari driver who was previously involved in a road rage incident, pleaded guilty to her offences.

She was convicted of one count of wrongly confining a worker in the crane bucket of a lorry crane, another count of committing a rash act, as well as one count of drink driving.

Shi's 2015 dispute with her neighbour arose due to an overgrown raintree in her landed property in the posh Astrid Hill estate in Bukit Timah.

The tree's branches had encroached into her neighbour Mr Nasrat Muzayyin's property. The branches would break and fall when it rained, so feeling that they posed a danger to his family, Mr Nasrat asked Shi to trim them. She initially agreed, but failed to do so.

On Feb 17, 2015, Mr Nasrat hired workers to prune the encroaching branches on Shi's tree. Working from Mr Nasrat's home, one of the workers, Mr Ankathi Thurupathi, stood inside the crane bucket of a lorry crane to prune the overgrown tree.

Arriving at the scene in her car about half an hour after they started work, Shi honked at them, and went into Mr Nasrat's house to confront him.

Refusing to listen to her neighbour's explanation that he had asked her to trim it about half a year ago, Shi berated him. Hurling vulgarities at him, she said: "You cut my tree … my tree is a living thing, I hope your kids die."

Shi then stomped back to her car. A few minutes later, she reappeared, went to the lorry crane, turned off its engine, and removed the key. In doing so, she trapped Mr Ankathi in the crane bucket above.

She then left with the key, in spite of remonstrations from the other workers.

Hearing what had transpired, Mr Nasrat went to Shi's house, where he had another argument with her. After that, Shi drove her car out again.

Mr Nasrat tried to stand in front of Shi's car to prevent her from leaving, but he eventually moved aside for his own safety after she showed that she was willing to continue driving towards him.

Shi then told Mr Nasrat that she was headed to Hong Kong, and left.

It was not known who called the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), but Mr Ankathi was eventually rescued by SCDF officers.

Separately, on Jan 31, 2017, police officers found Shi at the entrance of Grand Hyatt hotel along Orchard Road.

They observed that she smelled strongly of alcohol, her speech was slurred, and her gait was unsteady.

She ignored the police officer's advice to take a taxi home, and instead went towards her car, which was parked at the hotel's driveway.

She managed to pull it out of the driveway, though police officers prevented her from driving onto the main Orchard Road, and ordered her to take a breathalyser test.

She was arrested for failing to give a breath specimen.

A subsequent blood alcohol sample revealed that Shi's blood sample contained alcohol levels higher than the prescribed limit.

The court was told that earlier that night, Shi was at the hotel for dinner, where she drank a glass of wine, followed by two glasses of Gin and Tonic at the hotel's night club.

Shi will return to court at a later date for sentencing and mitigation.

She was sentenced in March to four weeks' jail and disqualified from driving for six months, for punching a motorist who had refused to make way for her red Ferrari. An appeal against her conviction and sentence is still being heard.

For wrongful confinement, Shi could be jailed up to one year, and/or fined up to S$3,000. She could also face a jail term of up to six months and/or fined up to S$2,500 for committing a rash act.