SINGAPORE: A man who got into a boat chase with the Police Coast Guard after illegally entering Singapore waters was sentenced to four months and six weeks' jail and three strokes of the cane on Friday (May 9).

Muhammad Rasidi Bin A Razak, 28, pleaded guilty to one count of navigating his boat rashly and one count of entering Singapore illegally.

A third charge of failing to stop his boat when he was ordered to do so by a coast guard officer was considered for sentencing.

The court heard that Rasidi, a Malaysian, had been working as a full-time boatman for about one month at the time. He drove a motorised fibreglass boat.

In March, two individuals, Kiew Yuke Hua and Surinarayanan Subramaniam, contacted Rasidi to arrange a fishing trip on Apr 18.

On the morning of the trip, Rasidi met them at a jetty in Johor and they set off at about 8am. They fished until past 1pm.

Rasidi then steered his boat to the waters off Pulau Sarimbun, which is near Singapore's northwestern coast.

This was despite Rasidi knowing that he should not go within 100m of Singapore's shore, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Law Yan An.

At about 2pm, a coast guard officer who was on patrol spotted the boat 1m from the shore of Pulau Sarimbun. This was about 0.27 nautical miles within Singapore's territorial waters.

On seeing the coast guard vessel, Rasidi panicked and immediately accelerated towards Malaysian waters, said Mr Law.

The coast guard officer activated his vessel's police blinker and pursued Rasidi's boat.

Despite limited space and shallow waters, Rasidi navigated his boat at high speed in order to evade the coast guard officer.

During the chase, the coast guard officer tried to intercept Rasidi's boat but he continued at high speed.

This resulted in a collision that threw his two passengers overboard.

Rasidi tried to move the boat to retrieve them. He did not comply when the coast guard officer asked him to stop, instead steering towards the coast guard vessel and causing a second collision.

It was only when the coast guard officer drew his service pistol and asked Rasidi to stop that he did.

The two passengers were then brought on board. The coast guard officer suffered a minor cut on his leg, and there were light scratches on ...