Jail for man who harboured grudge against colleague, threw 23kg wooden pallet at his head

SINGAPORE — Angry that his teenage colleague told their company management about a mistake he had made at work, Mohammed Fauzie Juraimi threw a 23kg wooden pallet at the back of the boy’s head.

The impact caused the 16-year-old part-time packer to begin bleeding from his head, and he grew dizzy as well.

Fauzie, who was working as a packing handler, immediately pretended that it was an accident and gave him S$10 to buy Panadol painkillers.

On Thursday (July 28), Fauzie pleaded guilty to voluntarily causing hurt to the victim by using a weapon likely to cause death.

The 40-year-old Singaporean was jailed for 12 weeks, or about three months.

The incident happened on Jan 17 this year while the victim was using an electric pallet jack, similar to a forklift, to move items within the CWT Distripark warehouse in Jurong, the court heard.

Fauzie waited for the boy to pass by before hoisting the wooden pallet over his head and walking towards him. As the boy was standing on the pallet jack and shifting some pallets, Fauzie charged at him from the back and tossed the pallet at him.

It struck the back of the victim’s head. He immediately turned around and saw Fauzie behind him.

Fauzie then said: “Sorry, sorry, it’s an accident to me.”

The incident was captured on closed-circuit television footage of the warehouse, which was played in court.

A warehouse safety officer went over to help the victim and gave him a chair to sit. The victim used some tissue paper in an attempt to stop the blood from oozing from the back of his head.

Fauzie approached him, said “sorry” once more and placed S$10 in cash on his lap, asking him to use it to buy Panadol pills. The victim left the money on a table and did not pocket it.

After the safety officer called the police, the victim was taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital. He did not require any sutures and was given three days of medical leave.

His employer, online grocery retailer RedMart, reimbursed him for his medical bill of S$130.60.

A week before the incident, Fauzie had failed to properly secure the batteries of a pallet jack about a week earlier, causing the batteries to drop.

The victim witnessed this and told the company management. This led to Fauzie being suspended from using a pallet jack for two weeks.

The court heard that Fauzie was angry at the victim because of this.

The warehouse’s work safety rules stated that all workers were banned from using their bare hands to move pallets due to their weight and had to use pallet jacks to do so.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Heershan Kaur described what Fauzie did to the boy as a “calculated and deliberate attack” and that Fauzie’s offer of S$10 showed his lack of remorse.

District Judge Christopher Goh told Fauzie that the victim's injuries could have been much worse.

“You did this because you probably did not think about the consequences… Learn from this lesson. You have committed an offence, you serve the sentence and you look forward,” the judge added.

Fauzie could have been jailed for up to seven years, fined, caned, or punished with any combination of the three.