Jail for chef who charged at colleague with knife over work-related stress

SINGAPORE: A chef who charged at his colleague with a knife while they were preparing ingredients was sentenced to four weeks’ jail on Tuesday (Nov 26).

Tiew Cher Suay, 58, pleaded guilty to one charge of criminal intimidation. Another charge of committing a rash act was considered for sentencing.

Tiew and the victim, also in his 50s, were both employed as chefs at the Little Italy restaurant at Woodleigh Mall.

On Mar 31, they were preparing ingredients in the kitchen when the victim asked Tiew to store the food in a proper container.

Tiew felt that the victim was giving him more work than justified, especially as he was a new hire, Deputy Public Prosecutor Yee Jia Rong said.

He shouted at the victim, who backed away. Tiew then grabbed a knife with a 38cm blade and charged at the victim.

The victim was able to grab Tiew and stop him from swinging his arms. He also pinned Tiew’s arms against a table. But Tiew continued to struggle while holding the knife.

Other staff of the restaurant intervened to separate the men, and Tiew was arrested on the same day.

The victim suffered cuts on his hands from the struggle and was given three days of medical leave.

Mr Yee asked for four to five weeks’ jail for Tiew, arguing that he used a knife with a blade of a significant length and that his actions were not provoked by the victim.

The prosecutor also cited Tiew’s related prior convictions, which included the use of criminal force and committing a rash act in 2008.

Defence lawyer Anil Singh asked for three weeks’ imprisonment and also said his client had a mild intellectual disability.

Tiew was hired by Little Italy earlier in March and was in charge of cooking pasta, while the victim was in charge of making pizza.

Although their jobs were clearly delineated, Tiew was given tasks outside of his job scope, Mr Singh said.

On the day of the incident, the victim was instructing Tiew to carry out tasks related to pizza preparation. This was not Tiew’s responsibility but he was helping the victim, said the lawyer.

He said that when Tiew was cutting ingredients for pizza, he mistakenly placed them in a plastic tray when they should have been put in another container.

The victim “admonished” Tiew for this, and Tiew “lost his bearings”, became overwhelmed and committed the offence, said Mr Singh.

However, the lawyer said this context was not an excuse for Tiew’s actions, and that he was contrite and had offered the victim compensation.

Mr Singh said that Tiew also suffered cuts on his hands and was held in a headlock during the struggle with the victim, for which he received three days of medical leave.

The doctor who assessed Tiew at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) said that he would benefit from counselling to better manage his emotions, said the lawyer.

He added that Tiew found counselling beneficial and was keeping up his appointments.

In response, Mr Yee said the prosecution would not be applying for a compensation order as the victim’s medical expenses were covered by his employer.

He also noted that the IMH report said there was no causal condition between Tiew’s offences and any mental condition he has.

Work-related stress did not justify Tiew threatening another person with a dangerous weapon, Mr Yee said.

Deputy Principal District Judge Kessler Soh told Tiew: “I hope that this is something you remember. No matter how upset or angry you are, you must not take a knife and do what you did. It’s a very serious offence.”

After Tiew was sentenced, he asked the court if he could start serving his jail term on Friday because he needed to do his laundry.

This reason only emerged after some back and forth, as Tiew, speaking through a Mandarin interpreter, at first said he “(did) not know how to put it” when asked why he wanted the deferment.

His lawyer then spoke with him and informed the court of his reason.

Judge Soh said that after backdating Tiew’s sentence to take into account his time in remand, he would be released soon. Tiew then agreed to start his sentence on Tuesday.

The punishment for criminal intimidation is a jail term of up to two years, a fine or both.