SINGAPORE — A 26-year-old man was fined S$2,500 on Thursday (Oct 17) after pleading guilty to endangering the personal safety of a National Environment Agency (NEA) enforcement officer by a rash act.

Alex Ong was standing and smoking at a multi-storey car park when the officer caught him. Later, Ong tried to leave in his car and kept inching the vehicle forward while the officer stood in front of it.

The court heard that the incident happened on April 1 last year at about 5pm. 

The officer, who was employed by security solutions provider Certis Cisco, was patrolling with another auxiliary police officer as part of enforcement duties at the multi-storey car park of Block 354A, Woodlands Avenue 1.

They approached Ong after seeing him smoking at Deck 3B of the car park. After identifying themselves, they told him that he had committed an offence by smoking there, and asked for his particulars.

Ong told them that he wanted to throw away his cigarette and walked to a rubbish bin. After that, he moved on and walked away from the officers, ignoring them.

They followed him closely and asked for his particulars again. However, he told them, “No money”, and walked down to Deck 3A where he had parked his car.

When he reached the car, he got into the driver’s seat. One of the officers then took down his car-plate number.

Ong then drove partially out of his parking lot before coming to a halt. When one of the officers went over and told him he was committing an offence, he pointed his index finger to show he was going to turn right and then waved his hand dismissively.

As he began driving off once more, the officer positioned himself in front of the car in order to stop him from leaving. He also warned Ong that it would be an offence if the car hit him.

However, Ong continued to inch the car forward, forcing the officer to repeatedly back up.

The officer was eventually forced to move out of the car’s path when Ong showed no signs of stopping. He then drove off.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Gerald Tan sought the maximum fine of S$2,500, saying that the way Ong drove his car “presented the potential (risk of) injury”.

“NEA enforcement officers are likely to incur the displeasure of unreasonable members of the public, such as in the present case.

“They must be adequately protected against abuse and the threat of physical harm so that they can discharge their duties without fearing for their physical safety,” the prosecutor added.