A drunken man smashed the rear windows and windscreen of a taxi in Singapore before collapsing and falling asleep by the roadside, in an incident that later formed part of a wider string of offences.
Mamun AL, a 36-year-old Bangladeshi national, was sentenced on Sept. 25 to two years, 10 months and five weeks in prison and two strokes of the cane after pleading guilty to four of nine charges involving offences including voluntarily causing hurt, extortion and theft.
The taxi incident happened on the morning of Jan. 27, 2024, after Mamun had been drinking with friends in Geylang. At about 6.15am, he boarded a taxi while holding a beer bottle.
As the taxi traveled along Kallang Road, Mamun allegedly used the bottle to smash a rear window. The driver stopped at a nearby bus stop and got out to inspect the damage, finding that both rear windows had been shattered.
When the driver asked what had happened, Mamun allegedly began attacking the front windscreen with the bottle. After the bottle broke, he continued striking the laminated glass with his fists, leaving it covered in spiderweb-like cracks.
Mamun then threw the bottle aside and eventually collapsed beside the road, where he fell asleep. The taxi driver called police, who arrived and arrested him.
The damage to the taxi was estimated at about S$2,197. Mamun did not compensate the driver for the repair costs.
The taxi attack was not the only offence linked to Mamun. While on police bail, he was involved in another case in which he and accomplices allegedly accused a man of stealing an electric scooter and demanded S$1,000.
When the man refused, the group assaulted him before taking S$50 in cash, his bank card and his mobile phone, according to court proceedings.
Mamun was also involved in a separate theft in February 2026 involving a bicycle worth about S$650. The bicycle was later recovered, although parts including its handlebars and tyre had been replaced with components from other stolen bicycles.
The latest sentence brings the separate incidents together in a case involving property damage, violence, extortion and theft.
The taxi episode began with a drunken outburst but ended with extensive damage to a working vehicle and ultimately became one of several offences considered by the court.
The case also highlights how an apparently isolated incident can become part of a much wider criminal case when further offences emerge during an investigation or while an accused person is on bail.
