SINGAPORE: On Monday (February 9), a man pleaded guilty to four charges related to the harassment of his neighbours for more than a year over relatively petty problems. Forty-three-year-old Seah Chin Leong was slapped with a total of 18 charges for mischief, violating the Protection from Harassment Act, and using criminal force in his dealings with his neighbours at Serangoon Gardens.
On multiple occasions, Seah threw rocks and bottles at the vehicles of his neighbours and got into a fight with a neighbour that resulted in both needing to be examined by healthcare professionals. He also damaged the gate of one of his neighbours.
Seah has already made restitution for some of the damage that he caused, and the prosecution is seeking jail time plus thousands in fines.
The troubles between the neighbours began in 2024. Seah, who had moved with his family into a landed home in the Serangoon area in July 2022, got upset with his next-door neighbour during the early morning hours of August 1, 2024, and asked him why he parked his car right outside Seah’s home.
The confrontation escalated into a fight, and the men exchanged blows, which led to both seeking medical advice.
On November 5, another neighbour called the police, saying he had seen Seah throwing glass bottles at his father’s car from the second story of his house. When one bottle hit the car, the repair cost S$894.
In another incident on Christmas Day of that year, Seah threw rocks at this neighbour’s car. The neighbour said Seah also kicked his car, swore at him in Hokkien, and tried to enter his house.
On February 22, 2025, Seah burnt joss paper in the incense bin on the road outside his residence, and when the flames grew big, one of the neighbours turned on a hose against them, out of concern that the fire would damage their vehicle.
The two then got into a fight, and Seah hit the neighbour’s gate with a stick. Repairs on the gate will cost S$1,000 to S$2,000, CNA reported.
In May, Seah was arrested. He has since settled with the neighbour whose car he threw bottles at, paying him S$3,393.80.
He has also sold the house so as to avoid further troubles with his neighbours.
The prosecution is asking for S$4,500 in fines and a jail term for Seah, pointing out that the neighbours had to endure Seah’s misdeeds for more than a year.
“In a dense city state as Singapore, where Singaporeans live cheek by jowl with each other, we cannot avoid it that we live so close to each other. From time to time, neighbours might be unhappy with each other, but they cannot resolve disputes or unhappiness by force whether to the other person’s body or property,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor Kevin Yong.
Sentencing will take place on February 24. /TISG
