Man fined S$2,000 for scratching stranger’s Tesla car at Clementi car park

SINGAPORE — A 39-year-old man was fined S$2,000 on Friday (July 8) for scratching another man’s vehicle in a public open-air car park.

Hoon Jen Ken claimed that he had come across a 36-year-old man on the afternoon of March 6 this year and grew annoyed with the way he was driving his Tesla electric car.

The court heard that several minutes later, when Hoon saw the vehicle parked near Block 379 Clementi Avenue 5, he scratched its right back door with a house key.

The owner of the car returned about half an hour later and discovered the long scratch mark. He then watched video footage from his in-car camera and saw a man inflicting the damage on the vehicle with an object resembling a key.

He made a police report at Clementi Neighbourhood Police Centre and sent his car for repairs. The total cost of repairing the damage was S$450.

Hoon has made restitution of this amount to the car owner.

When giving his mitigation plea, he told District Judge Joanne Leong: “I didn’t know I did something wrong. It was a mistake on my part, it was something I shouldn’t have done.”

He also asked for leniency in the form of no jail time.

The judge noted that he compensated the victim even before he was charged in court, and that the cost of repairs was below S$500 and “relatively low”.

For the offence of committing mischief to which Hoon pleaded guilty, he could have been jailed for up to two years or fined, or punished with both.