Man gets jail, cane for offences including molest and theft
He was a driver on car-pooling app SwiftBack when a 21-year-old woman engaged his services to take her home.
But Goh Wei Rong, now 24, molested her when they reached her neighbourhood at around 5.40am on April 2 last year.
District Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan found him guilty of the offence on Oct 16 following a three-day trial.
Goh also pleaded guilty to three traffic offences and one count each of theft and housebreaking. Four other charges for similar offences were taken into consideration during sentencing. Yesterday, he was given jail time of five years and eight weeks and six strokes of the cane.
During the trial, the woman testified that Goh drove to her destination and she was about to get out of the front passenger seat when he grabbed her wrists and shoulder to restrain her. According to the prosecution's submissions, she tried to free herself but he pulled her back.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Agnes Chan said that Goh pinned the woman to the seat and molested her before he settled back into the driver's seat. The victim managed to pull free, unlock the car door and run home.
The court heard that prior to this incident, Goh had committed a traffic offence and was disqualified from driving for a year until April 21 last year.
Despite this, he drove on two occasions - once on March 11, and when he picked up his victim.
Separately, Goh stole $13,440 worth of items from a bridal company last April and broke into his former workplace at an Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 food court and made off with cash totalling $40,542.30 in September. - THE STRAITS TIMES
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