Grab driver sentenced to one week jail for factory resetting passengers’ lost laptop

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A former Grab driver, Riduan Chumadi, was sentenced on May 24, to a week in jail after pleading guilty to dishonestly misappropriating a laptop that a passenger had accidentally left behind in his car.

According to The Straits Times report, the incident occurred on Oct 18, 2023, when a 42-year-old bank employee left her office in Marina Boulevard and boarded Riduan’s car. She left her laptop, worth $3,000, in the vehicle when she alighted at Raffles Hospital around 15 minutes later.

Riduan, instead of returning the laptop to its rightful owner, kept it in the boot of his car after another passenger handed it to him. He then dishonestly misappropriated the device, leading to the deletion of two years’ worth of work-related information stored on it.

The victim, upon realizing her laptop was missing, tried to contact Riduan but he declined her calls and lied that he had not seen the laptop in his car.

“The accused decided to dishonestly misappropriate the laptop and… kept it in the boot of the car”, said SPO Lam in court according to the report.

He added : “The accused knew that the laptop belonged to an earlier passenger but made no efforts to trace its rightful owner, as he had no intention to return the same (device) or turn it over to any authority.”

The 42-year-old woman eventually made a police report, leading to Riduan’s arrest after he attempted to reset the laptop at Sim Lim Square.

Although the laptop was eventually recovered and returned to the victim, all data stored in it had been lost. The victim stated that her daily work would be impaired for the next six months to a year due to the loss of important information.

Riduan’s actions have been condemned by authorities, with State Prosecuting Officer Lam Peng Choy stating that Riduan made no efforts to trace the rightful owner of the laptop and had no intention of returning it.

“The victim could not refer to past projects… to complete her work more efficiently, and also could not make reference (to) the past projects in order to pitch new projects to customers”, he added.

The court documents did not specify whether Riduan intended to sell the laptop or keep it for himself.

Nonetheless, Riduan’s actions have resulted in a week-long jail sentence. He pleaded guilty to one count of dishonestly misappropriating the device.

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