4 Weeks’ Jail For Malaysian Driver After Woodlands Checkpoint Incident
Last month, a Malaysian driver acted dangerously towards an auxiliary policeman at Woodlands Checkpoint.
In his rush to get to Singapore, he repeatedly inched his car closer to the officer — even when the latter told him to stop.
Recently, the State Courts sentenced the 36-year-old to four weeks’ jail for his rash behaviour.
Additionally, he was also banned from driving for a year.
Tried to cut into queue at Woodlands Checkpoint
On Thursday (13 April), Mohd Shahrir Johari pleaded guilty to one charge of acting in a rash or negligent manner that could have endangered an individual’s life or safety.
TODAY reported that the court case was over an incident that occurred at Woodlands Checkpoint on 23 Mar.
Source: Google Maps, for illustration purposes only
At around 7am, Shahrir had tried to cut into the queue of cars at the checkpoint when he was stopped by auxiliary police officer Muhammad Noralif Amir Hamzah, who was tasked with controlling traffic.
The officer stood in front of Shahrir’s vehicle while his partner instructed him to turn back.
Following this, the driver continued to inch his car towards Mr Noralif — until the vehicle eventually touched the latter’s leg.
Shahrir had apparently ignored Mr Noralif’s partner, who had shouted at him to stop and smacked the car bonnet with his hand.
When Shahrir did not stop, Mr Noralif’s partner reached into the car and switched off the engine.
Still, Shahrir refused to back down, turning the engine back on and inching his car forward again. This time, Mr Noralif was able to take a few steps back and avoid being hit.
Driver gets jail time & 12-month driving ban
Due to his dangerous actions, Deputy Public Prosecutor Louis Ngia asked for a four to six-week jail term.
Apart from that, DPP Ngia also sought a 12-month driving ban.
In response to the defence’s argument that Shahrir had been driving slowly, Senior District Judge Bala Reddy pointed out that Mr Noralif had been standing in front of the car to stop it from moving.
Whether the victim could get out of the way or not was “not the point” since Shahrir could still have caused harm anyway.
In the end, Shahrir was sentenced to four weeks in prison and disqualified from driving for 12 months.
According to TODAY, he accepted the judgement tearfully and said that he “respects Singapore law”.
Stopped by immigration officers at Woodlands Checkpoint
As it turns out, Shahrir was a driver providing limousine services between Singapore and Malaysia.
On the day of the incident, he had been rushing to get to a client appointment in Singapore.
As such, he decided to cut the queue of cars going into Woodlands Checkpoint.
Source: @malaysiakini on Twitter, for illustration purposes only
After his altercation with Mr Noralif and his partner, the traffic controllers allowed Shahrir to proceed towards the checkpoint.
But by then, Mr Noralif had already informed his superiors about what had happened.
A few immigration officers eventually stopped Shahrir’s vehicle from going further and reported the incident to the police at 8.45am.
Thankfully, Mr Noralif was not injured despite the harrowing encounter.
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Featured image adapted from Google Maps and @malaysiakini on Twitter, for illustration purposes only.
