Jail for man who threatened taxi driver with knife to avoid paying fare

SINGAPORE — To evade paying his taxi fare, he threatened a taxi driver by holding a knife against the 62-year-old man's chest, slashing the man in the ensuing struggle.

Mark Teo Sin Yan, now 32, a food delivery rider at the time, was on Tuesday (Dec 13) sentenced to more than eight months' jail for this charge of criminal intimidation and five counts relating to various other crimes ranging from driving without a licence to money laundering.

Teo was also disqualified from driving for 12 months and fined S$500, which he did not pay and will serve an extra day’s imprisonment instead. Five other charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

WHAT HAPPENED

The court heard that Teo hailed a cab in May last year and asked to be driven to two different destinations.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Sunil Nair said that at the first destination, a public housing block in Ang Mo Kio, he asked the driver to wait for him while he handed an item to a friend.

The driver asked Teo for a S$10 deposit. Teo said that he did not have money with him, raising the driver’s suspicions and prompting the driver to take a photo of Teo.

After Teo returned and got to his second destination in Hougang, he lied to the driver that someone would be coming with cash to pay for the taxi fare.

The driver went to a car park nearby and sent a message to a friend asking him to go over because he suspected that Teo was going to leave without paying. 

Noticing that the driver was sending messages, Teo leaned forward from his seat at the back and held a fruit knife next to the driver’s chest and restrained the driver with his other hand.

Teo then told the driver: “Do you want to let me go or not?”

Alarmed and fearing for his safety, the driver jerked and tried to move away. In the process, the knife slashed the driver on his left shoulder near his collar bone, which needed stitches later.

Teo alighted and walked away, while the driver called the police shortly after that.

On Tuesday, Teo also pleaded guilty to cheating buyers on e-marketplace Carousell by pretending to sell items, including a S$500 speaker, and collecting payment without delivering the products.

Teo made a police report falsely claiming that his bank and other online accounts were compromised, in a bid to get out of loans from his colleagues and a scam he committed.

He also struck an arrangement with an unknown person to allow a bank account registered to a company he owned, Royal Beaute, to be used to transact criminal proceeds.

In the space of less than a month in December 2021, the bank account had 288 transactions amounting to more than S$4 million, of which about S$53,000 were identified to be proceeds of online scams.

Teo’s lawyer, Mr Noel Chua, said that his client was genuinely remorseful for his actions, adding that Teo has tried to partially repay the victims he had cheated but was unable to do so because of his poor financial situation.

The lawyer from law firm PK Wong and Nair told the court that Teo has three young children and was earning about S$3,000 a month. Being the sole breadwinner for the family, Teo also took on extra delivery jobs to supplement his income.

“My client’s main focus was providing for his family. He does recognise that he made some unwise decisions,” Mr Chua said. “He was always concerned for his family above all.”

Mr Chua said that Teo had turned himself in to the police for threatening the taxi driver, but District Judge Janet Wang said that she was “quite concerned” with this argument.

“He surrendered himself because he knew the police were looking for him.” 

The judge added that the defence had downplayed Teo’s gambling habits, which contributed to his criminal acts.

Teo was sentenced to three months' and 22 weeks' jail, on top of the fine and driving disqualification.

For criminal intimidation, he could have been jailed for up to two years or fined, or both.

For his money laundering offence, he could have been fined up to S$500,000 or jailed for up to 10 years, or both.

For cheating, he could have been jailed for up to 10 years and been liable to a fine.