A 26-year-old delivery rider in Singapore has been fined S$2,000 after leaving a valuable Asian red arowana fish in his car for more than four hours, leading to the fish’s death.
The rider, Mohamad Isman Rosli, had picked up the rare ornamental fish — valued at S$1,500 — from Fu Long Aquatics, a fish farm, for delivery to a customer. However, he failed to properly handle the live animal after the delivery assignment was cancelled.
Delivery Cancelled Due to App Glitch
According to court proceedings, Isman was working as a part-time delivery rider for Lalamove when the incident occurred on Oct 7, 2025. He had accepted his first delivery job through the platform that evening. At around 9pm, he collected the live fish, which had been packed in a plastic bag for transport, from the farm.
Roughly 40 minutes later, the delivery assignment was cancelled due to a glitch in the application.
Instead of returning the fish immediately to the farm or arranging another solution, Isman left the fish in the plastic bag inside his car while he continued completing other deliveries.
The fish remained in the vehicle for at least four hours without proper care or oxygen management. At around 1am on Oct 8, after completing other jobs, Isman returned to the fish farm but found it closed. He then took the fish home and discovered that it had died. Rather than informing the fish farm or the intended customer, he disposed of the dead fish through a rubbish chute.
In the middle of the investigation, reporting by CNA highlighted that the rider also failed to compensate the customer for the loss.
A representative from the fish farm filed a police report on Oct 8, stating that the fish had gone missing and that the rider was uncontactable.
When police interviewed Isman the following day, he initially lied, claiming that he had returned the fish to the farm at around 11.45pm on Oct 7.
Investigators later reviewed police camera footage from his residential block, which contradicted his statement.
After being confronted with the footage, Isman admitted that he had thrown away the fish after finding it dead.
Prosecutors sought a fine ranging between S$2,000 and S$3,000, citing the financial loss suffered by the victim and the waste of investigative resources caused by the false statement.
The court ultimately imposed a S$2,000 fine.
Under Singapore law, the offence of mischief carries a possible penalty of up to one year in jail, a fine, or both.
Image via Google
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