Singapore — On June 19, Wednesday, a teenager pleaded guilty to kicking and breaking down the screen door at a train platform at Orchard MRT station which horsing around with his peers last year.
Unfortunately, his reckless act ended up costing the Land Transport Authority (LTA) S$3,061 to repair the shattered screen door.
Nineteen-year-old Mohamad Adib Azfar Mohamad, a part-time banquet helper, has entered a guilty plea to one charge of mischief resulting in damages worth more than S$500, in a roughhousing incident with some of his friends on September 24, 2018.
After he had finished their shift at Orchard Hotel at 6 o’clock in the morning on the said date, Mr Adib and his fellow banquet helpers headed toward the Orchard MRT station.
While he and a friend were horsing around, pulling and pushing at each other on the platform, the train arrived. Mr Adib, presumably still caught up in their games, attempted to stop his friend from boarding the train.
However, Mr Adib’s friend succeeded in running away from him and was able to board the train, with the screen doors closing behind him.
When his friend eluded his grasp, Mr Adib ran towards the screen doors of the platform, jumped up, and delivered a strong flying kick with his right leg to the screen door, not only breaking it but shattering it, according to the Deputy Public Prosecutor on the case, Dwane Lum.
Mr Adib, who has since not paid for any of the repairs on the broken screen doors, quickly disappeared from the scene via a Grab taxi, which took him home. However, his act of mischief which ended up destroying the platform screen doors was caught on video via the closed-circuit cameras at the MRT station platform.
The station manager called the police to report the incident by 8:10 am that day, which led to investigations on the shattered screen door.
When the judge on the case, District Judge Eddy Tham, asked the defendant why he did “such a stupid thing,” Mr Adib, who was accompanied by his mother in court, had no answer to his question, save for inaudible murmuring.
He also replied in the negative when Judge Tham asked him if he had been drunk during the incident, and said that he was sorry for what he had done.
The judge asked him, “What are you going to do about the damage caused? It’s not a cheap thing. The damage caused is over S$3,000.”
The defendant talked to his mother privately for a moment and then asked if he could pay the fine in installments.
Mr Adib will be sentenced on July 17, and Judge Tham has called for a probation suitability report on his case, telling Mr Adib to look for a way to make restitution before the date of his sentencing hearing. The teenager could face up to two years in jail or be made to pay a fine, or both, which is the penalty of committing an act of mischief that causes losses or damages of S$500 or more./ TISG