Jail for man who fled from police at Bukit Batok carpark

A man who was last released from prison in 2019 returned to a life of crime soon after and refused to obey the police when they caught up with him in an operation the following year.

Ryan Asyraf Mohammad A'zman was in a car near Block 331, Bukit Batok Street 33 in the wee hours of Dec 28, 2020, when three police officers ordered him to step out.

He refused to comply and reversed the vehicle, which dragged the trio. One of its wheels ran over an officer's toe and all three sustained injuries when they fell to the ground.

The car sped off and an eyewitness recorded a video, which was sent to The Straits Times.

Police managed to track Ryan down with the aid of security cameras and officers arrested him just hours later.

The 27-year-old Singaporean offender was on Tuesday (Jan 4) sentenced to four years and nine weeks' jail and disqualified from obtaining all classes of driving licences for eight years.

He pleaded guilty to 13 charges, which included causing hurt by performing a rash act and drug-related offences. Twenty-three other charges were considered during sentencing.

Ryan committed his some of his latest offences while he was under a remission order. As part of the order, he was supposed to keep out of trouble from May 4, 2019, to April 2, 2020.

He now has to spend an additional 232 days behind bars after he breached the order.

The court heard that Ryan has a history of drug abuse and was supposed to undergo urine tests after he was earlier released in 2019.

Despite this, he failed to report for them on multiple occasions from August that year.

Police arrested him on Dec 19, 2019, and he was charged in court two days later. He was later released on bail on Dec 27 that year.

Instead of lying low, he went to a friend's flat on Jan 18, 2020, and took a motorcycle key belonging to a woman while she was asleep. Ryan then rode her motorcycle even though he did not have a licence to do so.

A traffic police officer on duty in Serangoon North Avenue 1 saw that the motorcycle had a tinted visor, which was a contravention of road traffic rules, and ordered Ryan to stop.

Ryan refused to comply and sped off before making an illegal U-turn to ride back towards Yio Chu Kang Avenue 5.

As a result, the driver of a nearby car had to apply emergency brakes to avoid a collision.

Ryan was riding towards Upper Thomson Road when he lost control of the motorcycle and skidded.

He stood up, abandoned the vehicle and ran away. The officer pursued him on foot and caught him.

The officer searched Ryan, and found methamphetamine on him. His urine samples were later found to contain traces of the drug.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Dhiraj G. Chainani said that Ryan was supposed to report to a district court on Jan 22, 2020, but failed to turn up that day.

The court heard that Ryan later had suicidal thoughts and a friend alerted the police on Dec 27 that year. Officers went to a carpark in Punggol and saw Ryan driving away in a rented car.

The DPP said that "significant police resources" were then mobilised to mount an islandwide operation to locate him and this led to an operation that took place on Dec 28, 2020.

Police officers were in the Bukit Batok carpark at around 4am that day when they saw Ryan driving into it. He then parked the vehicle and alighted to meet his former girlfriend.

He was walking towards the void deck of a block of flats when two police officers approached him. When he spotted the pair, he ran back to the car and sat in the driver's seat.

The officers went after Ryan and one of their colleagues also came forward to join them. The trio ordered Ryan to step out but he refused and sped off.

Police finally caught him in a Jurong East flat at around 11am that day.