Delivery driver fined in Singapore court for throwing customer’s $1,100 arowana fish in trash

Mohamad Isman Rosli, 26, a driver working for Lalamove, was fined S$2,000 by a court in Singapore last week.

He pleaded guilty to two charges: committing mischief that resulted in the death of the fish and lying to police by claiming he had returned it to the fish farm, according to Channel News Asia.

The red Asian arowana was ironically Isman’s first order as a delivery driver, which he received at around 9 p.m. Oct. 7 last year.

About 40 minutes after he picked up the fish at the farm, the assignment was canceled due to what was initially believed to be an app error, according to court documents.

Isman then left the fish in the bag inside his car for about four hours without proper care, and only returned to the fish farm to drop off the fish at around 1 a.m. the following morning, after completing other deliveries, CNA reported.

As the facility was closed, he took the fish home, where he discovered it had died, so he threw it into the trash.

Later that day, a representative from the fish farm reported the fish missing to police after being unable to contact Isman.

When questioned by police, he first claimed he had returned the fish to the farm, and only admitted disposing of the fish after being confronted with surveillance footage from cameras at his residential building.

Prosecutors said Isman was aware that the item he was transporting was a live fish. By leaving it unattended, he should have known his actions could cause financial loss to the customer, as the fish was valued at S$1,500.

According to information obtained by Mothership from a Lalamove representative, the person who placed the delivery request had reportedly canceled the order. Despite this, Isman allegedly proceeded to collect the fish. By that point, the request was no longer considered an active Lalamove order.

The company said there was no malfunction in its system, noting that another driver had initially been assigned to the request before the user ultimately canceled it.